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THE PHILOSOPHY 


GOD ASD THE WORLD. 


THE 


GREAT CONTROVERSY. 


BIBLE ITS OWN EXPOSITOR. 


‘ To the Law and to the Testimony, Ir they speak 

NOT ACCORDING TO THIS WORD, IT IS BECAUSE 
THERE IS NO LIGHT IN THEM.”— ISCt. 


By KEY. THOMAS MITCHELL. 




NEW YORK: 

1ST. TIBBALS & S O 1ST, 

37 Park Row. 

1871. 


r 





• tA 55 


Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-one, 

By Rev. THOMAS MITCHELL, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 


The Library 
of Conhrkss 


'WASHINGTON 


WEED, PARSONS AND COMPANY, 

PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS, 

ALBANY, N. Y. 












CONTENTS 


CHAPTER I 

The Reason of Antagonisms between Philosophy and Revelation—Erroneous 
Assumptions. Religious Intolerance against Investigation—God Challenges 
the World to Reason—Allows Absolute Freedom of Thought—Arrogance of 
the self-styled “Free-Thinkers.” Errors in Philosophy and Science Equal 
to those in Theology. Example—Effects may be Produced without Adequate 
Causes. The Controversy of the Age between Transcendentalism and Christi¬ 
anity—The Term Defined—Origin of the System—Cause of the Hostility. 
Atheism the Result of Superficial Philosophy. Deism — Its Origin — The 
French Academy. Platoism Introduced into the Catholic Church—Socrates 
and Plato, on God and Immortality, Teaches Purgatory—Christianty not 
Responsible. 


CHAPTER II. 

Origin of the Catholic Church—Plato’s Doctrines Introduced—Corruptions of 
"Bible Truth Illustrated. The Immortality of Jesus and Paul Contrasted 
with that of Plato and Socrates. Deification of Reason. Praying Souls out 
of Purgatory—Its Origin Heathenism. Christ’s Estimate of the Virgin Mary 
in Contrast to that of the Catholics. Rome Degrades Jesus. Opposition of 
Deism to Catholicism Inconsistent. The Works and Word of God the 
Standard to Correct Human Reason. Revelation alone Answers the Questions 
of Man’s Origin and Destiny. 

CHAPTER III. 

Limitation of Human Reason—Philosophy of Man’s Creation—Perfect at First— 
Indirect and Gradual Creation Requires more Skill, and of the same Nature, 
than the Direct and Perfect at once—Animal and Vegetable Reproduction 
Knows Nothing of the Creation of the First Species. Man cannot Create 
the Least Spire of Grass—Requires a Comprehension of the Laws of Life. 
Plato the First Pantheist—Pantheism Unphilosophical. The term “ Create,” 
as used in the Bible, means to Make one Thing out of Another. The Exist¬ 
ence of God, Matter, Space and Duration, Eternal and Philosophical 
Necessities—Annihilation Impossible—Erroneous Attempts to Define God— 
Revealed in Nature and the Bible—Our only Source of Knowledge—God an 
Organized Being—All Power Mental—Does not Depend upon Dimension— 
Order of Mind Known by what it Produces. God not Necessarily Immate¬ 
riality—The Tendency of the Age is to Reject the Existence of God, or Accord 
to Him Phases of Existence He cannot Possess. 



4 


Contents. 


CHAPTER IV. 

Absurd Notions Concerning the Knowledge of God—God Thinks—Succession of 
Thought Consistent with His Mind—Does not Argue God once Ignorant— 
What is meant by Infinite Wisdom and Power. Philosophy of Thought, 
Design, Purpose and Action—Action Implies the Existence of all These— 
Transcendentalism — Confusion—Its Sentiments Unphilosophical—Cannot 
Explain the Laws of Motion—Involves the Necessity of an a priori —Chem¬ 
ical Affinity not the Work of Nature — Essential to Motion. M. Comte 
Denies the Right to Reason a priori or a posteriori —His Arrogance—Comte, 
Spencer and the Theoretical Geologists Agree only on two Points—To Dispose 
of the Bible and its Author—A Synopsis of the Geological Book of Genesis— 
Demonstration Demanded—That they should make a Miniature Solar System. 


CHAPTER Y. 

Object of the World’s Creation—A time when Deity had no Thought concerning 
it—Desired to make it Permanent and Eternal—Confined to Three Alterna¬ 
tives. Man must have Will to be Man—Introduction and Reign of Death 
foreseen—Emergency met by striking the Plan of a New World, and to 
Resurrect Inhabitants for it, to succeed this. Results of Misapprehending 
this Truth—why Nations and Men are important in the estimation of God. 
God’s Fore-knowledge of the World and Race depends upon his prior Fore¬ 
sight and Investigation. Not disappoined in the end—Why some Nations 
and Peoples become Degraded beyond what God had contemplated. 

CHAPTER YI. 

The Four Universal Empires—The Last Succeeded by the Everlasting Kingdom of 
God. The Bible only Contemplates Time and Eternity—The End gives its 
Doctrines Importance—Error here Fatal to their Understanding. How the 
Scriptures were given. Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream—The Astrologers cannot 
Interpret it—Daniel does. The Metallic Image Symbolizes the Chaldean 
Medo-Persian, Grecian and Roman Monarchies. Daniel’s Vision of the Four 
Beasts. Egypt not a Universal Kingdom. Troy not—Never were but Four 
on Earth. Belchazzar Slain—Darius and Cyrus take the Kingdom, and hold 
the Empire of the World. 


CHAPTER VII. 

Jewish Captivity Ends—Daniel’s Vision of the Eighth Chapter—The Ram with 
Two Horns — Media and Persia—The Rough Goat, Grecia—Alexander the 
Great, the Notable Horn—His Victory over the Medes and Persians—Profane 
History. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

The Three First of the Empires named in Prophecy—The Symbolization Represent¬ 
ing Rome, the Fourth of these Empires—It Universal when Christ was on 
Earth. Rome emerging from Greece—The Little Horn—His work—Prophetic 
period covering it. Profane History—Grecian Empire at the Death of Alex¬ 
ander. The Prophetic Period—2300 Days—Years—End with the Temporal 
Power of Papacy, 1848. The Prophet’s Misapprehension Corrected by Gabriel— 
Peter’s Allusion to this—Gabriel’s Mission—The Seventy Weeks Divided into 
Three Periods—Reason for. This Period, 490 Years, reached to the Year 37 of 
the Christian Era—End of the Jewish Dispensation. Events of the Latter 
Part of the Vision—Rome Divided into Eastern and Western—Also into Ten 
Subdivisions. 


Contents. 


5 


CHAPTER IX. 

Feet and Toes of the Image did not exist till the Fourth Century. Destruction of 
the Image—Not Conversion. The Glorified Saints take the Kingdom. Des¬ 
truction of Paganism—Establishment of Papacy—By Constantine and Jus¬ 
tinian—Names of this Power Defined—Tts Prophetic History—Revealed to 
Daniel—Horns mean Kingdoms. The Revelator’s Exposition—The Lamb 
Beast—The Symbolization Revealed by the Angel of Jesus to John. 

CHAPTER X. 

The Two Wonders of the Twelfth Chapter—Symbol of the Christian Church— 
The Great Dragon—Paganism—Papacy Supersedes it—The Church Rejoiced 
at the Change, but Deceived—Papal Persecutions Begin—The Church Flies 
into the Wilderness for 1260 Years—The Angel of the Bottomless Pit 
(Papacy) chains the Pagan Dragon—Meaning of these Symbols. The Prophet 
and Revelator looking toward each other—Wonderful Accuracy—Easy to be 
Understood—Prophetic Periods can only be Understood about the time of 
their Termination. Why Writers on Phrophecy have Differed—God Explains 
His Own Meaning, or Man Cannot Know it. Dread of Opposing Opinions of 
Others—A Great Source of Error. 

CHAPTER XI. 

Divisions of the Four Beasts—The Lamb Beast Symbolizes France, under Napo¬ 
leon III, and Sardinia, and their Relations with Pope Pius IX. The Last 
Condition of Popery with Temporal Power—Events Represented by the Four 
Beasts — Sixth Head of the Dragon Wounded to Death—Progress of the 
Little Horn—God’s History of the False Church—In Advance. 

CHAPTER XII. 

History of the Great Dragon—Reaches to the End of the World—Reason Why 
Given — Its Character Extensively Descriptive—The Church to look for 
Rome’s Destruction—Reason Why—Why the Tail Symbolizes the Woman 
sitting upon the Dragon—Her Name—Her Work—She Shed the Blood of all 
the Martyrs—Conclusion—Her Plagues—Comprehensive Character of the 
Dragon, in all its forms. The Seven Heads—Heads mean Kingdoms. The 
Prophets and Revelator See and Describe the same Events—The Expression 
“Shortly Come to Pass.” 


CHAPTER XIII. 

Prophetic Periods—Time of the End—Seventy-five Years, from 1848 to 1923, 
A. D., here end. Why are they Blessed who hear the Words of this Book— 
The Consequences of Corrupting it—It may be Understood—Reasons why 
not Heretofore—Reasons for Successive Visions—Minute Description of the 
Seven Heads—The Ten Horns—Augustan Age. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Seventh Head—Nero—Diocletian—Slaughter of the Church—Constantine Assumes 
the Empire—Justinian—Subdues the Pagan Kings—They become Papal— 
Belisarius—Christians Protected against Pagan Persecutions—National Con¬ 
versions—Triple Crown—The Judgment of the Horn—Events of 588—Com¬ 
mencement of the 1260 Years—Agreement of the Pagan Kings—God Induced 
them to give their Power to Papacy—Spain the last Pagan Kingdom Converted 
to Papacy, 588—Commencement of the Temporal Power—In 1848 the Catholic 
Kings of Europe take away their Power, and the Pope ceases to be a Tem¬ 
poral Prince. 


6 


Contents. 


CHAPTER XV. 

History of 1848—Pope in Banishment—Roman Republic—The Pope calls on the 
Catholic Kings of Europe to Reseat him—None Obey his Mandate—What 
Prophecy here Fulfilled—What it Indicates—France Restores the Pope to 
Rome—It a Republic—Sardinia—These the two Horns of the Lamb Beast— 
Louis Phillippe—Charles Albert—The Lamb Symbolizes the two Republics— 
Headed by Napoleon and Victor Emanuel—Speaks as a Dragon—Doth Great 
Wonders—The Catholic Kingdoms of Europe under the Absolute Dominion 
of Papacy—England first Revolts—In the Sixteenth Century—All Others 
Follow—Austria the Last, but did in 1848. Napoleon makes an Image to 
the Beast (Papacy)—Not the Thing itself, only looks like it—He holds the 
Power and Reigns Absolutely in Rome, and has since that Period. Napo¬ 
leon’s Interference with other Nations—Attempts to Establish Catholic King¬ 
doms—His Success, Perfidy and Deception, Wonder of the World. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The Revolution Commenced with Pius IX — His History. Napoleon’s Usurpa¬ 
tion— History of the Times — His Astonishing Career — Declared to be the 
“Holy Son of the Church” — Only Two Horns to the Lamb Beast — This 
the Last Form of Papacy. 


CHAPTER XVII. 

Prophetic Periods — That Covering the Temporal Power — Inauguration of the 
Lamb Beast — Length of the Temporal Power — Begins 588; ends 1848. 
Man of Sin—Identical with the Abomination of Desolation and Little Horn— 
The Prophet desires to Understand this Period—Angels also—A part of the 
2300 Days — Evidence Overwhelming—Christ not knowing the Day nor 
the Hour. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Prophetic Period, 1260 years, Five Times Repeated in the Scriptures •*— Time 
of the End — Its length, 75 years, ending 1923 — The World Increases in 
Wickedness, and will till its end — Perplexity and Apprehension among the 
Nations — The End now Comes — The World and Nominal Church in Total 
Darkness as to these Indications, and will be till the end itself— Christians 
should and may Understand its Near Approach. Papacy Scatters the Power 
of the Holy People—Vital Godliness, Last Event of Prophetic History. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

The Concession that there are Christians in the Catholic Church — Its Crafty 
Deceptions—Its American Movements—The Papal Hierarchy Unchanged— 
Its Antagonism to Christ and Liberty. To Prosper Ecclesiastically till the 
end of the World, but loses.all Temporal Power after 1848. 

CHAPTER XX. 

The Events Marking the Commencement of the Prophetic Periods, 1260, 1290, 
1335, at the same date — Papal Church a War Power from its Foundation — 
More Hateful and Corrupt than Paganism—Exposed by True Christians, for 
which cause they were Martyred — Infallible Marks and Events by which it 
may be known—The Daily Sacrifice—The Sanctuary Cleansed — Little Horn 
Waxed Exceedingly Great — Ecclesiastical History—Papal Church Estab 
lished by the Sword — Pagan Nations Compelled to Submit to its Autho¬ 
rity— This their Conversion to Catholicism. 


Contents. 


7 


CHAPTER XXT. 

That Historians should call the Papal Church Christian, unaccountable — It has 
no Element of Christianity—Its Principal Doctrines Heathen Philosophy— 
Its Spirit Satanic. Jesus called it “the Abomination of Desolation.” The 
Revelator Baptized it “the Mother of Harlots, and Abominations of the 
Earth.” Contrasted with Christianity—Its Resemblance to the Christian 
Church — Cause of Deception — Many Fell by being thus Deceived — It was 
never Christian — Knows nothing about Salvation by Faith — Its very 
“ Coming was after the Working of Satan.” 

CHAPTER XXII. 

The Event Connecting the 2300 and 1260 year Periods — Paganism Destroyed, 
Papacy Established between 320 and 588, a. d. — The Little Horn Subju¬ 
gated the Ten Horns, and Absorbed their Power—The Times of the Gentiles 
2520 years — Longest Prophetic Period — Connected with all Others — Ends 
1848. The Expression, “ Heaven,” as a Symbol — The Pagan Religion and 
Papacy of the Four Universal Empires, each 1260 = 2520. 


CHAPTER XXIII. 

As Corrupt and Cruel as was Paganism, Papacy exceeds it—The Tribulation She 
Inflicted upon the Church—“The Earth Helped the Woman.” England 
Opposed Papal Dominion — Events of 1588. The Spanish Armada — The 
Thousand Years of the 20th of Revelation ended here — The Persecution of 
1260 Shortened to One Thousand—1848, the Temporal Power of the Pope 
The Direct Issue — History of the Events of that Year—The Pope’s Letter— 
Constitution offered by the Pope to the People of the Papal States — Pius IX 
Perplexed—If he grants Civil Liberty, it carries with it Religious—Becomes 
Alarmed and Flies from Rome by Night in Disguise—All Catholic Europe in 
Revolution—The Roman People lose all Reverence for the Pope. 


CHAPTER XXIY. 

The Thousand Years supposed to be a Millenium of Peace on Earth—Explained— 
Has no such Meaning. Events in France—Louis Napoleon Chosen Presi¬ 
dent—Sends 14,000 Troops to Reseat the Pope—Rome Falls by French 
Arms—Intrigues of the French Commander—Decrees of the Roman Assem¬ 
bly— Republican Army under Garibaldi Defeats the French — Wait for 
Reinforcements—Louis Napoleon’s Letter to General Odinot—The Temporal 
Power cannot be Restored, and held by the Pope. Second Assault of the 
‘ French Army upon Rome Successful—Desperate Struggle—Roman Hatred to 
the French and the Pope among the People—The Revolution Commenced by 
Pius IX Heading the Republican Movement—All Catholic Europe Engaged— 
The Only Question — Temporal Power — Napoleon I did not fulfill these 
Prophecies by destroying the Temporal Power—Napoleon III does. His 
Unpopularity — Fears Defeat in the Approaching Election — Usurps the 
Authority and Makes Himself Emperor. 


CHAPTER XXV. 

Bottomless Pit—The Foundationless System of Papacy—Twentieth of Revela¬ 
tions, Pagan Dragon Chained by Papacy—Its Power and Heathen Doctrines 
Absorbed by the Papal Church for a Thousand Years—Its Power over 
Princes—England had Gained her Independence in 1588, end of the Thousand 
Years—Which Commenced in 588. From 1588 to 1848 all the Catholic 
Kingdoms followed. 


8 


Contents . 


CHAPTER XXVI. 

The Souls under the Altar—Victims of Papal Persecutiou—The Huguenots—Bar¬ 
tholomew’s Eve—10,000 Slain in One Night—Its History—Other Prophecies 
here Fulfilled—This Great Tribulation, that it was the Sufferings of the Jews 
Erroneous—First Resurrection, the Conversion of Sinners—The Slain Mar¬ 
tyrs Reign with Christ a Thousand Years—Rome Crucified Christ and Slew 
his Saints, yet during this Thousand Years of Bloody Persecution they Reigned 
Triumphantly — They Overcame Him by the Blood of the Lamb. The 
Literal Resurrection—After the Thousand Years have Ended, and at the 
Judgment which is here, Papacy Doomed—The Beast and False Prophet 
Destroyed now by Christ in Person. 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

Description of the Last Battle—Christ the Conqueror—Nations Gathered—Allied 
in their Different Interests—Ready for the Great Battle—Not Fought Between 
them, but Between them and Christ—“Behold! I come as a Thief!”—The 
Great River Euphrates Symbolizes Catholic Kings, Pope and Subjects—To 
Fulfill this Prophesy, Europe must Prepare for a War on a Grand Scale, and 
be on the Eve of the Conflict when the World ends—And the Battle is that 
of God Almighty or Armageddon—Seems to be the next Great Event. 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

The Two Witnesses—Civil and Religious Liberty—Clothed in Sack-cloth 1260 
Years—The Beast that Kills them is France, under Napoleon III, in 1848— 
They Lie Unburied three and a half Years, till Napoleon Usurps the Empire, 
just three and a half Years from his Election to the Presidency—They then 
Ascend up to Heaven and leave the Great City to her Doomed Despotism. 
Elijah, the Prophet—Papacy only an Image of what it had been—Napoleon 
held the Power. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

Sounding of the Sixth Angel, and Second Woe—Its Closing Event—The Seven 
Angels—The First Angel Sounded—Pagan Persecutions Ending with Con¬ 
stantine—Second Angel Described by Jeremiah and Isaiah—Mystic Babylon— 
Her Destruction. 


CHAPTER XXX. 

The Third Angel Sounded—The Star Called Wormwood—The Angel of the 
Bottomless Pit—Papacy—Her Satanic Character—Allied with Hell—Her 
Power over the Nations—Loss of that Power—The Nations Turn Against 
Her—The Saints Rejoice over Her Helplessness—The Kings Released from 
Her Power—She is the Angel of the Bottomless Pit. 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

Sounding of the Fourth Angel—The Figures Sun, Moon and Stars—The Church 
in the Gospel Age Clothed with the Sun, Moon—The Types of the Law the 
Twelve Stars—The Apostles of the Lamb—The Time was Proclaimed. 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

Fifth Angel Sounded—Abaddon—Apollyon—Not Mohammedanism—The Scorpion 
Sting—These Armies do not Kill—The Angel of the Bottomless Pit, same as 
the Angel of the Twentieth Chapter, with a Great Chain, with which he 
Bound the Dragon and Cast him into the Bottomless Pit—Pope Pius IX not 
an Exception—These Names Signify a Destroyer—Papacy Stands Unequaled 
for the Destruction of the Rights of Man. 


Contents. 


9 


CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Sixth Ang'l Sounded—The Third Part of Men—The Contestants Divided into 
Three Parts—The Four Seraphims Representing these—The Holy Alliance— 
River Euphrates—The Three Unclean Spirits—The Hundred and Forty and 
and Four Thousand—The Great Multitude—Sealed—Period of Unparalleled 
Prosperity to the Church—Loosing of the Four Angels Bound in the Great 
River Euphrates—Napoleon III breaks up the Holy Alliance—Time of 
Trouble to come on the Earth—The Saints Triumphant—Then Delivered. 
Seventh Angel Sounded—Gospel Dispensation Ends—The Kingdom of God— 
The Last Day. 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

The Seven Seals Opened—Selections of Prophesy Explaining these Events—Who 
was Worthy to Open the Book and to Loose the Seals — The Four First 
Seals—A Horse and another Beast Appear under the Opening of each—They 
Symbolize — First Seal, the Apostolic Age — Second, Pagan Persecutions — 
Third, symbolizes the Church, from the days of Constantine — Its History— 
Fourth Seal, the Church Flying from Papal Persecutions — Souls under the 
Altar, Fifth Seal. 


CHAPTER XXXV. 

Sixth Seal, Signs of the Great Day of Judgment—The Day Comes — Effect upon 
the Wicked of Mankind—Awful Descriptions — The World Found in Total 
Darkness—Taken by Surprise—Confounded in Silence — Under the Seventh 
Seal being Opened, the Silence Succeeded by Universal Mourning. 

CHAPTER XXXVI 

Seven Angels to the Seven Churches — Introduction to Them — Christ in His 
Glory seen in Vision — Zachariah Predicts these Events — Meaning of the 
Passages — The Church to undergo no Important Change in the Future. 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

The Church in Ephesus — Maps out the Days of the Apostles down to the Time 
of Nero, a. d. 64. Church in Smyrna. The Tribulation ten days—The Ten 
Persecutions — From Nero to Constantine, 324. The Church in Pergamos 
symbolizes the Church from Constantine to the Reformation. The Church 
of Thyatira symbolizes the Contests of the Reformers with the Papists. 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

The Church of Sardis symbolizes the Protestant Church as John Wesley found 
it — One of the few Names in Sardis who had not Defiled their Garments — 
Their Object, the Vitalization of the Church — Failing in this, They were 
forced to come out of Her, through the Door God had opened for the purpose. 
The Church of Philadelphia — Brotherly Love —No Fault to Find with Her. 
The Church of the Laodiceans Represents the Protestant as it will be when 
the World Ends. 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

The Seven Last Plagues — Thei^ Vials contain all God’s Wrath —The Judgment 
of Papal Rome —The First Six of the Plagues Poured upon Her in quick 
Succession — Consuming Her Temporal Power —Each Distinctly Marked — 
The Saints Rejoice —The Pope Suffers —His Kingdom full of Darkness — 
Flies from Ilis Seat — Seventh Angel poured his Vial into Air — The World 
was Burned —These various Chains of Symbols all bring us down to the 
End of the World—All the Sympathizers Suffer—All Heaven Rejoices. 

G. 0. 2 


10 


Contents. 


CHAPTER XL. 

The Battle of Armageddon—Christ on Earth in Person—His Army—In Awful 
Grandeur—Angelic Mandate to the Kings of the Earth—They Gather at His 
Command—The Great Harvest—The Wine Press—The Wrath of God—The 
Vine of the Earth—The Glory of the Book of Revelation—Advantage of 
Understanding the Prophetic Periods. 

CHAPTER XLI. 

Chronology of the World—The World to be Six Thousand Years Old—Bible 
Arguments for this—We have not followed Human Chronologists in a Single 
Hate—Every Number taken from the Bible—This Chronology makes the 
World Six Thousand Years Old in the Year 1923, A. H.—The same Year we 
make the Prophetic Periods End. The only Chronology without Human 
Figures and Dates. 

CHAPTER XLII. 

The Resurrection—The Future State of Heathen Philosophy in Contrast with that 
of Christianity—Socrates and Plato—Origen Introduced Platonism into the 
Romish Church—Paul, at Athens, disputes w'ith these Philosophers—Resur¬ 
rection of the Righteous and Wicked Simultaneous—The Body that Died to 
be Raised—The Principles of the Change—The Resurrection Body of Christ the 
Example—A Material Body may be Eternal—Importance of the Resurrection. 

CHAPTER XLIII. 

The Resurrection the Hope of the Saints—Not a New Creation—The Valley of 
Dry Bones—Resurrection Body Possessed of Flesh and Bones—Not Blood— 
Vitalized by Another Principle—A Spiritual Body—Not a Spirit. 

CHAPTER XLIV. 

Paul’s Reasoning—Christ had the same Body which was Crucified—The Tree of 
Life — Immortal Beings may Eat—Christ Did—Future State of Heathen 
Philosophy a Fable. 

CHAPTER XLV. 

Christ’s body not changed after his Resurrection—Resurrection Bodies of the 
Wicked Corrupt—Contrast between those of the Righteous—Immortality 
Belongs Exclusively to God—Promises it as a Reward to the Saints—Con¬ 
ferred in the Resurrection—,£.11 the Wicked to be Raised. 

CHAPTER XLVI. 

Objections Answered—A Philosophical one—God the Author of Nature’s Laws— 
Did He Permit them to Confuse the Particles of the Dead, Rendering their 
Resurrection Impossible, would Argue His Ignorance and Weakness—The 
Laws of Vegetation never Destroyed the Identity of a Species—Superficial 
Views of God—All Phases of this Objection Without Force. 

CHAPTER XLVII. 

A Mathematical Objection Answered—The State of New York would Bury the 
Whole Race of Mankind of all Time—The Resurrection—Saints real Men and 
Women, having Eternal Youth—Angels do not Grow Old—Have no Wings— 
The Saints will have none—Christ’s Ascension was by Controlling the Atmos¬ 
pheric Pressure and Gravitation by His will—The Principle of the Locomotion 
of the Saints anywhere in the Universe—Wing Locomotion Degrading—This 
Ability Implies Simply Mental Power over the Elements—As Jesus Manifested 
by Walking on the Water and Ascending. 


Contents. 


11 


CHAPTER XLVIII. 

The Saints have Material Bodies—Must have a Material Inheritance—What God 
Covenanted to give Abraham and his Seed—The Whole Earth—A Nation 
Through Ishmael—Abraham Looked for the New Jerusalem—The City of 
God’s Promise—The Mansions of Jesus—Paul’s Argument—The New Earth 
the Inheritance of the Saints. 

CHAPTER XLIX 

The World not to be Annihilated—The New Heavens and New Earth the Third 
Heavens of Paul’s Vision—Eden—The World to be Prepared by him—From 
its Ashes a New Heaven and New Earth to be Created. 

CHAPTER L. 

Paradise is the New Heaven and New Earth—Paul’s Vision of Paradise—Prom¬ 
ised to the Thief on the Cross—John Locates in the New Earth and the New 
Jerusalem. 

CHAPTER LI. 

God’s Description of the New World—The Present World then Finished and 
Eternal—The New Jerusalem a Literal City—Grandest Display of Divine 
Architecture in the Universe—Capitol of His Kingdom—It must be Literal— 
The Day of Types, Shadows and Symbols now Passed—The Eternal and 
Changeless Realities have come. 

CHAPTER LII. 

The Restitution—About which all the Prophets speak—A Passage from each— 
What was Cursed—To be Restored—Inanimate Nature—The World—The 
New Jerusalem City—The only Things about which all the Prophets Write. 

CHAPTER LIII. 

Importance of the Subject—The Great End to be Accomplished—Simultaneous 
Events at the Second Mission of Jesus. Poetry—Value of the World—This 
Truth Vindicated—The Ideas of a Future State Entertained by Heathen 
Philosophy Corruptions of God’s Revelation of that State—Absurdity of 
Quoting this as Authority. 

CHAPTER LIV. 

Regeneration—The Term—The Doctrine has its Incipient Fulfillment only in the 
Present World—Mentioned only Twice in the Bible—When Fulfilled, Christ 
sits on the Throne of His Glory. 

CHAPTER LV. 

New Birth—The Doctrine Contemplates the Resurrection—Christ born from the 
Dead—The First among many Brethren—Moral Subjection here—May be 
known Subjects of the New Birth—Cannot Sin without Backsliding first in 
Heart—A Nation Born in a Day—From the Dead to Immortal Life. 

CHAPTER LVI. 

Adoption and Redemption similar—The Spirit of Adoption only Received in this 
Life—Adoption itself the Redemption of the Body—Resurrection. Predesti¬ 
nation Relates to Adoption and Redemption—Not to the Conversion of Sin¬ 
ners—This God’s Design before He made the World—Its Subjects sing “ We 
shall Reign on the Earth.” 

CHAPTER LVII. 

Atonement—Proposes to bring back the World and the Saints to an Eternal Oneness 
with God—Introduction of all the Glorified Saints into their Incorruptible 
Inheritance—Atonement made when Christ leaves the Mercy Seat—The Type. 


12 


Contents. 


CHAPTER LVIII. 

Christ, Prophet, Priest and King—Successively—He was Prophet while on Earth— 
Priest while on the Mercy Seat—And King when he comes into his Glorious 
Kingdom, Established under the Whole Heaven—Christ had no Natural 
Generation—Luke and Matthew’s Considered. 

CHAPTER LIX. 

Relation between Christ and David—David made King by Acclamation—Symbol 
of Jesus Coming into His Kingdom—David King in the Type—Old Jerusa¬ 
lem—Jesus King in the New Jerusalem, the Anti-Type. 

CHAPTER LX. 

How Christ was the Son of Abraham—The Jews confounded the Eternal King¬ 
dom of God with their Little Kingdom—Christ not a Priest through Levi— 
Melchesiaic, King and Priest—His Type—His Generation not Counted— 
Jesus had none to Count—He the Son of no Particular Man—God was His 
Father—Not a King of the Jews—But of all Nations. 

CHAPTER LXI. 

Unity of God—So much Importance has been Attached to the Trinity, that the God¬ 
head has become Disintegrated—Gives three Distinct Localities for the Persons 
in the Trinity—Modern Theology makes four Persons in the God-head—These 
all Spirits—Dread of Matter—The Cause—God must have a Substantial Form 
of Being—The Shape of Man—Of such a Nature that He could take on Him 
such a Body as Man’s—This done in the Incarnation. 

CHAPTER LXII. 

No Discrimination between the relative Powers and Glory of the Persons in the 
Trinity—The Names of God — Significant — He did not think it degrading to 
take a Material Body. The God of Pantheism — Of Atheism. Why man 
made in the Image of God — God Emanuelized, the embodiment of the God¬ 
head— The Unity of the Trinity—This History—The Relation of God with 
Fallen Man made the Trinity a Necessity—What was Born in the City of 
David — Died and Rose Again. 

CHAPTER LXIII. 

Isaiah’s Prediction of the Event — The Body — That of God Himself—God and 
the Son one—When God withdrew from Him, the Body Died—Took it again 
in the Resurrection. 


CHAPTER LXIY. 

God and Christ Created all Things — Hence were One — He is God — Therefore 
Embodied God — The Son had no Life abstract from that of God in Him — 
His Words were God’s Words — Let this Cup Pass — Considered. 

CHAPTER LXY. 

He that was Dead declared to be Almighty God — The Omnipotent Emanuel — 
Bearing the Government — Only M 3 r sterious because above Human Reason 
and Comprehension — Objection he Prayed to His Father answered — Objec¬ 
tion drawn from His Mediation answered — An Error Explained which sup¬ 
poses Antagonism of Feeling exist between the Father and Son—In the Work 
of Mediation — “In Him Dwelt all the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily”— 
“ The Lord God is one Lord, and beside Him there is no God.” 


INTRODUCTION. 


That the religions freedom of thought is the demand and 
necessity of the present age, cannot be questioned, in conse¬ 
quence of which human creeds have almost utterly failed to 
command the respect and reverence awarded them in the past 
—we speak, of course, with respect to the intelligent. 

What has hindered the progress of religious thought and 
intelligence more than any, or perhaps all, other causes, is the 
concession made by the church to the opinions of the past. 
That Luther, Calvin or Wesley were better, or even as well, 
qualified to form opinions as to the meaning of scripture doc¬ 
trines, involving a knowledge of the prophecies (without which 
no great doctrine of scripture can be understood), than the men 
of the present age, is simply absurd. 

That the Bible “ is a light, shining more and more unto the 
perfect day,” clearly vindicates this assumption. 

If one thing is more characteristic of the intellectual progress 
of the present age than any other, it is, that nothing is taken 
for granted, coming from whatever source it may—the minis¬ 
ter, the physician, or the professor ; if conviction is produced, 
the argument, the philosophy, the reason, must be given. 

For the religious teachers of our day to ignore this, and con¬ 
tinue the enforcement of sentiments simply from authorities, 
is to engender doubts and drive the intelligent into skepticism. 
The true and only course, therefore, is, that religious teach¬ 
ings must be shown, not only to have a perfectly philosophical 
basis, but that they present the only system of physical, moral 
and mental philosophy, adapted to meet all the laws of man’s 
being, and to elevate him to the grandest altitude of his 
capacity. 

That the great doctrines of inspiration are thus adapted, 



14 


Introduction. 


demonstrates them to have originated in the mind of the 
Creator of man, alone possessing the power to develop his 
religious nature, and which, in the present life, is essential to 
the social and civil as well as the intellectual progress of 
mankind. 

The conception of this truth only rises to its ligitimate 
magnitude, and settles upon its true foundation, by the 
sympathetic realization of God manifested in the person of 
Jesus Christ. By this revelation, man discovers in God a 
moral nature, which history and the inanimate universe 
nowhere inculcates. The inexorable penalty annexed to 
nature’s laws recognizes neither vice nor virtue, and knows 
nothing of goodness and mercy. Its relentless voice is, keep 
my laws, or suffer the consequences. The universal reign of 
death and all its inseparable incidents of deprivation, suffering 
and woe, viewed only through the light of nature, reveals a 
God dispossessed of fondness, mercy, and love ; so that with¬ 
out the light of the Bible, and shut up alone to that afforded 
by history and inanimate nature, Socrates might with pro¬ 
priety exclaim of the gods, who were made to represent the 
heathen ideas of the God of nature, “It was never supposed 
that in the gods dwelt virtue.” 

A God of such a nature must equally love and draw to him¬ 
self those like him, and repel and drive from him those having 
no moral similitude with himself. The philosophy, therefore, 
of the existence of the present world and its inhabitants, as 
well as that indicated in the scriptures of truth, contemplates 
a moral elevation or resurrection of man up to this indispens¬ 
able sympathy with his Creator. 

The principles of the Christian religion not only possesses 
the power to achieve this great work, but after every thing else 
has been tried, which the genius of six thousand years has dis¬ 
covered, stands triumphantly alone, and, beyond the present 
world, with the unerring finger of both reason and of inspira¬ 
tion, points to a physical redemption of all such, so that man, 
mentally, morally, and physically, shall rise to that state and 
condition of perfect and permanent being, after which every 


INTR OB UCTION. 


15 


element and attribute of his nature ardently aspires, the ex¬ 
istence of which, thus planted in man, can only be accounted 
for upon the supposition that such is the destiny awaiting 
him. This truth is beautifully expressed in Cato’s soliloquy: 

“ It must be so, thou reason’st well:— 

Else, whence this pleasing hope, 

This fond desire, this longing 
After immortality ? ’Tis the 
Divinity that stirs within us ; 

’Txs heaven itself, that points out 
An hereafter, and intimates 
Eternity to man.” 

The idea that any one generation of men will arrive at any 
thing like such a condition, and especially that this was the 
object for bringing into existence the previous hundreds of 
generations of mankind, presents the most unparalleled ab¬ 
surdity. Suppose such a generation should be brought into 
being, would they be exempt from death and all its concomi¬ 
tant disasters of diseases and suffering % the very apprehension 
of which, as now, would put a thorn in every enjoyment, and 
continue, by the shortness of life, to urge on its subjects to the 
rapid acquisition of knowledge, wealth, and social position, 
which has itself given rise to most of the vices of the world. 

Any state or condition of man, which does not propose un¬ 
interrupted health, exemption from death, and therefore 
eternal youth, is not worth having. Do we not, therefore, per¬ 
ceive that nothing but the introduction of man into the 
immortal world, where its inhabitants shall not say “I am 
sick,” and wherein they die no more, is at all adapted to meet 
the necessities and capacities of his being ? hence its philoso¬ 
phy, existing equally in the nature of man and the provisions 
and promises of the Bible, rises to an eminence of mental, 
moral, and physical grandeur infinitely above all other sys¬ 
tems of philosophy within the conception of mortal minds— 
contemplating no generation of the race to come, and elevating 
them at the expense of the hundreds of the past, but claiming 
its subjects from the godlike dead of all ages and nations, 
who, by the reception while living, of these great and yet sub- 


16 


Introduction ,. 


limely simple propositions of God, had their moral nature 
subdued to harmony with his supreme government; and who, 
after a sufficient number had been thus moulded into his 
moral image and likeness, will be fashioned into that of his 
own immortal nature, “by the power wherewith he is able 
even to subdue all things unto himself.” Here is manifested 
the great principles of the philosophy of God in the perfect 
development of man, and the realization of which appears to 
be indispensable to the vindication of his character as a being 
of mercy and goodness, in bringing into existence and so long 
suffering the reign of death and all the horrid derangement to 
human society therefrom during the ages of the generations 
of men. 

Any idea of God, which does not give him a moral nature, 
cannot be otherwise than superficial. If we could conceiye of 
a purely intellectual being, he would not only be devoid of the 
power to accomplish external acts, but equally that of self- 
motion. He could not act without a motive — a motive implies 
the existence of a faculty to be gratified ; this gratification im¬ 
plies the existence of feeling, and therefore of a moral nature. 
How, if God possesses a moral nature, it must lead him to 
approve and disapprove — to love and hate — and to induce 
him to reward and punish. His feelings must be infinitely 
intense ; if he loves those who have natures like his own, and 
who are, therefore, supremely attached to his government, he 
must love them infinitely. If he disapprove, hate and repel 
those unlike himself, whose feelings of pride rise to such a 
height that they would, if they had the power, dethrone the 
Deity himself, rather than submit to any deprivation or pun¬ 
ishment from him, his feelings in this direction must also be 
without limit; hence the assimilation of the moral nature of 
man with that of God is essential to the harmony and eternity 
of the immortal world itself, of which he is the everlasting in¬ 
habitant. Here we see God as clearly revealed in the existence 
of moral relations, as in the Bible, and the great and marvel¬ 
ous manifestation of himself in the person of Jesus Christ, 
the embodiment and Emanuelization of himself. 


RULES 


OP 

INTERPRETATION, 


AND 

DIRECTIONS FOR INVESTIGATING THE SACRED SCRIPTURES. 


First — Let the Bible define and explain its own terms, 
figures and symbols. 

Secoxd — Give every passage a literal construction, unless 
its own connection and phraseology renders such a course ab¬ 
surd, by bringing it in collision with truths elsewhere estab¬ 
lished by positive language. 

Third — The proper connection of any given passage is not 
necessarily that with which it stands connected, but that bear¬ 
ing upon the same subject, found recorded anywhere in the 
scriptures. Select all these texts from where they stand, put 
them together, and you have the truth in relation to that sub¬ 
ject, and all the light with which you can be favored, unless 
the author of the book condescends to give another revelation, 
which is unnecessary, for the present one is full and harmoni¬ 
ous. This is what Paul calls “ rightly dividing the word of 
truth.” 

Fourth — All passages belonging to any particular subject 
must contain one or more of the peculiar features of that sub¬ 
ject, by which it may be identified as belonging to the same. 

Fifth — The truth in relation to any doctrine must be 
established by those passages which speak of it in positive 
3 



18 


Rules of Interpretation ,; 


ancl unequivocal language; and those texts, evidently belong¬ 
ing to the same subject, but which only admit of inferential 
testimony, no inference should be drawn from them, at vari¬ 
ance with the truths as already established by the positive 
texts. 

Sixth — No doctrine should be predicated upon mere in¬ 
ference, neither upon one isolated text of scripture. Any 
true doctrine will be found interspersed throughout the whole 
Bible. 

Seventh — Any doctrine taught by types or shadows, the 
antitype must always correspond with the type, and the sub¬ 
stance with the shadow. 

Eighth — In studying the scriptures, the New Testament 
must be considered a commentary on the Old. 

Ninth — Never be afraid of results to which you may be 
driven by your investigations, as this will inevitably bias your 
mind, and disqualify you to arrive at ultimate truth. 

Tenth — If you would understand the ‘ c mind of the Spirit, 
which is the word of God,” search it with the humility and 
sincerity of a little child; heed the direction “Learn of me, 
for I am meek and lowly in mind.” 

Eleventh— Consult no author as authority, less than 
divine, in so momentous an undertaking. 

Twelfth — Pursue this course for life, and.with as much 
independence as though you were the only one concerned. 
“Prove all things, and hold fast that which is good.”— Paul, 


GOD AND THE WORLD. 


CHAPTER I. 

Ix the history of religions, scientific, and philosophic con¬ 
troversy, there has been almost universally manifested a 
disposition to assume extremes. 

The grounds, therefore, of difference have not been so much 
that antagonisms existed, at least, between revealed religion 
and the philosophy of nature, but that such positions have 
inevitably led the advocates on either side to assume errors 
for which neither revelation nor philosophy were responsible. 

In accordance with this view, we find that the most offensive 
features of religious dogmas, utterly irreconcilable with Bible 
truth, have elicited the most fierce contests, inducing the 
relentless spirit of persecution which characterized the dark 
ages. 

So well convinced have the devotees to error and false doc¬ 
trine been, that their opinions would not stand the test of 
impartial investigation ; their only hope was to prevent them 
from being thus subjected; and therefore recourse has been 
had to priestly anathemas and the sword of persecution; in 
such a-state of things ; freedom of thought was indeed im¬ 
possible. In contrast to this, we hear the God of revelation 
issuing a challenge to the intelligence of the world, “ Come 
and let us reason together, saith the Lord;” “Search the 
scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they 
are they which testify of me.” Investigate and see whether 
the testimony is in harmony with itself and the truths of 
nature. 



20 


The Philosophy of 


Paul commended independent investigation. “The Bere- 
ans,” said he, “ were more noble than those of Thessalonica, 
because they searched to see whether these things were so”— 
the things which Paul had taught. Indeed, there is not an 
intimation in the whole Bible forbidding man to use the God 
like powers of reason, with which he finds himself endowed, 
to the fullest extent of his ability. Absolute freedom of 
thought, and hence of accountability, are alike the grand 
requisitions of the Bible and its author. 

That a small class of men should arrogate to themselves 
this attitude, and call themselves “Free thinkers,” is simply 
preposterous ; that no discrimination should be made between 
this commendable position,- and the atheistic sentiments of 
such, is without justification. 

We hold that any invasion of the freedom of thought, or 
an attempted limitation of the field of human investigation, 
is a violent assault on the rights of man, and the inherent 
attributes with which his Maker has endowed him, and which 
must be universally recognized as essential to the develop¬ 
ment and progress of truth. 

But while such errors of position and belief have charac 
terized religionists, and which we consider reprehensible, 
pretended philosophers have not been less superficial, narrow 
minded, and egotistic in their views. Many of their errors 
'are as unphilosophic and preposterous as any which have 
ever found their way into religious creeds. Take, for example, 
the idea which attempts to account for the existence of things 
by an inherent power or property, arising out of the nature 
of the things themselves, or that there existed in simple mat¬ 
ter itself before it assumed or was made to assume any com¬ 
bined form, as a thing made for a purpose, the power of 
self-formation. The supposition involving the philosophic 
absurdity that effects can be produced without adequate 
causes, or that the lesser produces the greater, is unequaled 
.by any religious dogma, however erroneous. 

> The great controversy forced upon the present age, with a 
formidableness unequaled in the past, is between Christianity 


God and the World. 


21 


on the one hand, which may be summed up in two words — 
“Jesus and the resurrection,” as expounded in the Bible. 

On the other, Materialism, Atheism, Pantheism, Deism, 
Rationalism, and Spiritualism, all of which may be summed 
up substantially in the popular phrase, Transcendentalism. 

In order to obtain a proper idea of these systems, if indeed 
they are not substantially one, and to understand the reasons 
of their hostility to the Christian religion, we must take a 
historic view of their origin and relation to the Christian 
church, as well as the contrasts between their teachings and 
its sentiments. 

The open and frank atheistic disavowal of the existence of 
God, other than the deification of conscience and reason, 
which had so many adherents in the last century, have nearly 
disappeared. 

That this belief was the result of a superficial philosophy, 
is unquestionable, for it abruptly sunders the inseparable 
connection between cause and effect, claiming that the latter 
may exist in the absence of the former. 

Lord Bacon says, and perhaps gives expression to his own 
experience as well as observation, “ Though a small draught 
of philosophy may lead a man into atheism, a deep draught 
will certainly bring him back again to the belief of a God.” 
It was doubtless this somewhat deeper draught, although not 
deep enough, that led Voltaire before he died to acknowledge 
that, “if a God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent 
one.” 

Though atheism has thus nearly become extinct, yet in its 
more subtle and dangerous form of pantheism, it has more 
disciples than ever before. 

This we conceive to be only the most unphilosophic form of 
deism. “It arose about the middle of the sixteenth century 
by some gentlemen in France and Italy, in order thus to 
disguise their opposition to Christianity by a more honorable 
appellation than that of atheism.”— Viratfs Instruction. 
Deism rejects all manner of revelation; its followers go 
merely by the light of nature, believing that there is a God, a 


22 


The Philosophy of 


Providence, vice and virtue, and an after state of rewards and 
punishments. 

Tlie first deistical writer of any note in England was Her¬ 
bert, in the year 1624. The most distinguished deists were 
Hobbes, Tindal, Morgan, Lord Bolingbroke, Hume, Holcraft 
and Godwin. The above statement of their doctrines presents 
deism in its most favorable light, for it teaches the belief in 
natural religion alone, or those truths in doctrine and prac¬ 
tice, which man is to discern by the light of reason, inde¬ 
pendent and exclusive of any revelation given by God, and 
which even confounds God with nature itself, especially the 
nature of man, and therefore assumes the garb of pantheism. 

We cannot give as just and comprehensive an idea of the 
modern deists as by selecting from an address delivered by 
Jules Favre, at the French Academy, Paris, a few months 
since, * who had been called to the professorship, as successor 
to Victor Cousin. After pronouncing an eulogium on Cousin, 
whom he declared to be the great translator of Plato, the 
successful philosophical writer, the justly eminent university 
professor, the peer of France, of Louis Phillippe, and senator 
of Louis Napoleon, he proceeded with his peroration, in 
which his views on this subject were summed up as follows : 
“But the God, of whom my immortal soul preserves the 
indelible image—the God who reveals himself to my con¬ 
science by my reason, is a God of intelligence and truth. He 
has created me intelligent and free, and the first law which he 
has imposed upon me is, respect for my intelligence and my 
liberty. I am faithful to him in obeying the reason which he 
has given me for my guide. My duty is, therefore, to judge 
and to choose, and to repulse what my reason rejects. From 
this arises the principle of the absolute independence of thought, 

* The manuscript of this hook was finished more than two years since, and, 
of course, b.efore the late French war with Prussia. This will enable our readers 
to understand some of the dates of events and allusions to their occurrence 
within this period, as it speaks of the Pope still in Rome, and Napoleon reign¬ 
ing in France. But, as these events have only served to develop their prophetic 
history as calculated, we are not under the necessity of changing a sentence in 
relation to them. 



God and the World. 


23 


corresponding with the principle of the absolute independence 
of conscience. If philosophy had the faculty of bringing 
materialists and atheists upon a locality thus made so free, I 
have the deep conviction that it would not leave a resting 
place for any of their propositions, and that, in the midst of a 
grateful humanity, it would force them to reestablish deism 
and spiritualism upon their eternal basis. I say it without 
evasion, the despisers of reason, whatever may be their rank 
and the rectitude of their intentions, appear to me more dan¬ 
gerous than materialists themselves. Philosophical science is 
our guide; and while it treats all religions with respect, it 
cannot, however, cede to their doctrines. Truth has nothing 
to fear from the control of reason; religion and philosophy 
spring from the same GJ-od ; they unite in ascending to him by 
the same route — that of science and liberty. In the modern 
world nations can only be powerful upon the condition of 
being free and believing ; they can only be believing upon the 
condition of enlightening their faith by reason freed from 
shackles. The genius of France has long blended upon the 
folds of her flag the two devices, philosophic and political 
liberty.” 

Now, as the French Academy has become so firmly estab¬ 
lished upon the eternal basis of deism and spiritualism, as 
Victor Cousin announces it, and, as he and Jules Favre are 
two of the greatest philosophers of the French nation, and, in 
this direction, perhaps in Europe — the former here acknowl¬ 
edged to be the great expounder of Plato, his doctrines being 
those adopted by the deists of this school—it becomes neces¬ 
sary to inquire, what are the doctrines of Plato and < rates, 
his master, wherein they differ from Christianity, hoy they 
came tp be identified with it, and which of the two sy 4ems 
have for their defense reason and philosophy. 

In this investigation we shall find that the doctrines .he 
French Academy denounces as intolerant and unphilosopnic, 
as well as those it receives as deism, the former of which they 
erroneously confound with Christianity, because held by the 
Catholic religion, that of their nation, originated in the 


24 


The Philosophy of 


Platonic philosophy, the source also of their own, and, 
indeed, are those of the anti-christian system of the whole 
Roman Catholic church, which were introduced into it by 
Origen, a Platonic philosopher, but a Catholic presbyter in 
the third century, and that they stand in eternal contrast to 
the doctrines of revealed truth, whether found in nature or 
the Bible; and we return the insolent declaration of Jules 
Favre upon himself, and say we cannot, without violating the 
facts of history as well as the truths and deductions of science 
and philosophy, cede to his propositions, or those of his 
school, although we will treat them with all the respect and 
candor they merit but, at the same time, we propose to submit 
them to the severest ordeal of investigation and metaphysical 
scrutiny, in which, as we conceive, lies the very foundation 
of all natural truth as well as theological, and therefore 
metaph 3 r sics constitute the only philosophy of the world, 
race, and the existence of things, because comprehending the 
inseparable relation of the causes and effects manifested in all 
phenomena. Any other philosophy must be superficial. 

Catholicism has been the religion of the French nation 
since the year 508, A. D., when Clovis was converted from 
Paganism to Papacy, being the first king and real founder of 
the French nation. In order to ascertain the doctrines of 
these philosophers we will introduce the following discourse 
of Plato on the formation of the world, and also a short one 
from Socrates, his master, on the immortality of the soul, 
which embody all the fundamental principles of the Platonic 
philosophy. We wish to explain here that we do not use the 
terms Christian and Christianity as descriptive of the Roman 
Catholic church, but only as an accommodation, because 
they are thus commonly used. If there are two opposing 
systems more wide and in deadly antagonism than any others, 
they are the Catholic hierarchy and the Christian church. 
Plato’s discourse and its introduction we quote from The 
Selections of a Father: 

“ Cape Sunium is distant from Athens about twelve leagues, 
and upon its summit stands a superb temple consecrated 


God and the World. 


25 

* 

to Minerva. From the summit of the promontory is seen at 
the foot of the mountain the harbor and town of Sunium — 
which is one of the fortresses of Attica. But a grander scene 
excited our admiration ; sometimes our eye wandered over an 
expanded sea, and then reposed on the prospect presented us 
by the neighboring islands. Plato was with us, on whom 
great and sublime objects always made a strong impression. 
He seemed now to fix his whole attention on the gulfs before 
us, which nature had excavated to receive the waters of the 
ocean. In the mean time the horizon began to be overclouded 
with hot and gloomy vapors; the sun grew dim, and the 
smooth surface of the waters assumed a melancholy hue, the 
tints of which incessantly varied. All nature appeared to be 
in silent and fearful expectation. We sought asylum in the 
temple, and quickly the thunder with redoubled peals broke 
the barrier of darkness, fire suspended over our heads; 
thick clouds rolled their heavy masses through the air and 
descended in torrents on the earth, while the winds upturned 
the foaming billows. The roaring of the winds and waves, 
and thunders reechoing from caverns and mountains, seemed 
all united to proclaim the approaching dissolution of the 
universe. At length, the north wind having redoubled its 
efforts, the storm departed, to carry its rage into the burning 
climate of Africa. We followed it with our eyes, and heard 
it at a distance, while the sky with us shone again with a 
purer splendor, and the sea, which had so lately dashed its 
surges to the clouds, was again calm and transparent. 

‘ 4 At the sight of these rapid changes we remained for some 
time silent; and then arose those questions and doubts which 
have exercised the curiosity of mankind for so many ages. 
Why these seeming errors and revolutions in nature ? Are 
they to be attributed to chance % Whence is it that the close, 
connected chain of being, though a thousand times on the 
very verge of being broken, is yet perpetually preserved ? Are 
tempests excited and appeased by an intelligent cause ? What 
end does that cause propose in them ? From these questions 
we proceeded to the existence of the gods, and the origin of 
4 


26 The Philosophy of 

» 

tlie universe. Wandering and lost in the mazes of these 
ideas, we conjured Plato to guide us to the truth. He was 
absorbed in profound meditation ; it seemed as if the terrible 
and majestic voice of nature still resounded in him. At 
length, overcome by our entreaties and the truths which he 
resolved in his laboring mind, he seated himself and began 
his discourse : 

“ ‘Feeble mortals that we are ! is it for us to penetrate the 
secrets of the Divinity ? for us, the wisest of whom is to the 
Supreme Being only what an ape is to us? I entreat Him to 
inspire me with such ideas and language as shall be pleasing 
to Him and conformable to reason. If I were to explain 
myself in the presence of the multitude, concerning the first 
author of all things, the origin of the universe, and the cause 
of evil, I should be compelled to speak in enigmas ; but in 
these solitary places, where I am only heard by God and my 
friends, I shall have the satisfaction of rendering homage to 
truth. The God which I declare unto you is a God single, 
immutable and infinite ; the center of all perfection,-and the 
inexhaustible source of intelligence and being. Before He 
had created the universe, before He had externally displayed 
His power, He was; for He had no beginning; He was; in 
Himself, He existed in the profundity of eternity. Ho ; my 
expressions do not correspond to the elevation of my ideas, 
nor my ideas to the sublimity of my subject. 

“ ‘Matter equally eternal subsisted in a fearful fermenta¬ 
tion, containing within itself the germs of all evil, and agitated 
by motions which sought to unite its parts, and destructive 
principles which instantly separated them ; susceptible of 
every form, but incapable of retaining any; horror and dis¬ 
cord wandered over its tumultuous waves. The dreadful 
confusion which you so lately beheld in nature was but a 
feeble image of that which reigned in chaos. From all 
eternity God, by his infinite goodness, had decreed to create 
the universe, according to the model ever present to Him, 
immutable and perfect; an idea like to that an artist con¬ 
ceives, when he converts rude stone into a superb edifice ; an 


God and the World. 


27 


intellectual world, of winch the visible is only the copy and 
expression. Whatever in the universe is the object of our 
senses, and all that escapes their activity, was traced in a 
sublime manner in the first plan. Thus from all eternity 
existed God, the author of all good ; and matter, the principle 
of all evil; and that model according to which God had 
determined to reduce matter to order. 

“ ‘When the moment decreed for this great work arrived, 
the eternal Wisdom issued his commands to chaos, and 
instantly the whole mass was agitated by a fructifying motion, 
and its parts, which before had been separated by an impla¬ 
cable hatred, hastened to unite, embraced and enchained each 
other. Fire for the first time shone in the midst of darkness, 
and the air separated from the earth and water. These four 
elements were destined to form the composition of all bodies. 
To direct their motions, God, who had prepared a soul, com¬ 
posed in part of divine essence, and in part of material sub¬ 
stance, clothed it with the earth, the sea, and the gross air, 
beyond which he extended the deserts of the heavens. From 
this intelligent principle, placed in the center of the universe, 
issue as it were rays of flame, which are more or less pure, as 
they are more or less distant from their center ; these insinuate 
into bodies and animate their parts; and which, when they 
arrived at the boundaries of the world, diffused themselves 
over its circumference, to form around it a crown of light. 

Scarcely had the universal soul of the world been 
plunged into this ocean of matter, which conceals it from our 
view, when trying its powers it shook the mighty whole, and 
turning rapidly on itself, drew after it the universe, obedient 
to its efforts. If this soul had only been a pure portion of the 
divine substance, its action, ever simple and constant, would 
have impressed only one uniform motion on the whole mass ; 
but as matter formed a part of its essence, that occasioned 
variety in the progress of the universe; thus, while one 
general impulse, produced by the divine part of the universal 
soul, caused the whole to revolve from east to west in the 
space of twenty-four hours, a particular impulse, produced 


28 


The Philosophy of 


by the material part of the soul, caused the part of the 
heavens in which the planets float, to advance from west to 
east, according to certain ratios of velocity. 

“ ‘ To conceive the cause of these two contrary motions we 
must observe, that the divine part of the universal soul is ever 
in opposition to the material part; that the former is most 
abundantly found toward the extremities of the world, and 
the latter in the beds of the air which surround the earth; 
that, in fine, when motion was to be given to the universe, 
the material part of the soul, unable entirely to resist the 
general direction given by the divine part, collected the 
remains of irregular motion which had agitated it in chaos, 
and communicated it to the spheres which surround our globe. 
The universe was now full of life,— this only son, this 
begotten God, had received a spherical form, the most perfect 
of all forms, and was subjected to a circular motion, the most 
simple of all, and the most suitable to its form. The Supreme 
Being now surveyed his work with complacency, and, having 
compared it with the model which he had followed in the 
operation, saw with pleasure that the principal features of the 
original were faithfully executed in the copy. But there was 
one exalted property which it could not receive ; eternity , the 
essential attribute of the intellectual world, of which the 
visible was not susceptible; as it was not possible the world 
should possess the same perfection, God willed that they 
should have similar ones to approach as nearly as possible. 
And He created time, that movable image of immovable 
eternity; time, which incessantly beginning and ending the 
circle of days and nights, months and years, seems in its 
course to know neither beginning nor ending, and to measure 
the duration of the sensible world as eternity measures that 
of the intellectual; time, in fine, which would have left no 
traces of its presence had not visible signs been appointed 
to distinguish its fugitive parts, and to register, if I may so 
speak, its motions. 

“ ‘ With this view, the Supreme Being enkindled the sun, 
and impels him with the other planets through the vast soli- 


God and the World . 


29 


tude of the air, whence that luminary inundates heaven with 
its splendor, sheds its light on the paths of the planets, and 
fixes the limits of the year as the moon determines those of 
the months. 

“ ‘And now the Author of all things thus addressed the 
genii, to whom He had confided the government of the stars: 
“ Ye Gods, who owe to me your birth, listen to my sovereign 
commands: You have not a title to immortality, but you 
may partake in it by the power of my will, more potent than 
the bonds which unite the parts of which you are composed, 
to fill with inhabitants the sea, the earth, and the air. W ere 
these creatures to receive life from Me, they would be exempt 
from the empire of death, and become equal to the gods 
themselves. I therefore commit to you the care of producing 
them. Delegates of My power ! unite to perishable bodies 
the germs of immortality, which you shall receive from Me; 
and form those beings who may command over other animals, 
to remain subject to you. Let them receive birth at your 
command, live to increase by your benefactions, and after 
death let them unite to you and share in your happiness.” 
He said, and immediately pouring into the cup in which He 
had mixed the soul of the world, the remains of what He had 
reserved of that soul, He composed the souls of individual 
creatures, adding to those of man a portion of divine essence, 
and annexed to them irrevocable destinies. 

‘ 6 6 Then it was decreed that mortals should be born, capable 
of knowing and serving the divinity ; that the man should 
have the preeminence over the woman; that justice should 
consist in triumphing over the passions, and injustice in 
yielding to them ; that the just after death should pass into 
the stars, and there enjoy unalterable felicity; and that the 
unjust should be changed into woman, or, if they continued 
unjust, transmigrated into different animals, and that they 
should not be restored to their primitive dignity until they 
should become obedient to the voice of reason. After these 
immutable decrees, the Supreme Being disseminated souls 
into the different planets, and commanded the inferior gods to 


30 


The Philosophy of 


clotlie them successively with mortal bodies, to provide for 
their wants and to govern them. He then entered again into 
eternal repose. 

“ ‘The immortal and rational soul was assigned its place in 
the brain, the most elevated part of the body, to regulate its 
motions. But, besides this divine principle, the inferior gods 
formed a mortal soul, destitute of reason, in which were to 
reside pleasure, which attracts evil, and pain, which makes 
good disappear; audacity and fear, the source of impudent 
actions; anger, so difficult to calm; hope, which so easily 
seduces ; and all the violent passions which are the necessary 
adjuncts of our nature. This soul occupies in the human 
body two regions, separated by an intermediate partition. 
The-inferior gods, commanded to endow us with all the per¬ 
fections of which we are susceptible, have ordained that this 
gross portion of our souls should be enlightened by a ray of 
truth. This privilege cannot be bestowed on the immortal 
soul, since purity is never unvailed to reason, and only mani¬ 
fested in sleep, during sickness, or in the transports of 
enthusiasm. The qualities of matter, the phenomena of 
nature, the wisdom which especially shines conspicuous in 
the disposition and uses of the parts of the human body, and 
various other objects worthy of the greatest attention, would 
lead me too far; I return to what I first proposed. God 
could create, and has created, only the best of possible 
worlds, because he worked on a rude, disorderly matter, 
which incessantly opposed his will with the most stubborn 
resistance. This opposition still subsists; hence tempests, 
earthquakes, and all the revolutions which take place on our 
globe. The inferior gods, when they had formed us, were 
obliged, likewise, to employ the same means as the Supreme 
Divinity ; hence the maladies of the body, and those still 
greater and more dangerous ones of the soul. All which is 
good, then, in the universe at large, and in man in particular, 
proceeds from the Supreme God ; and all that is defective in 
them is to be attributed to the inherent viciousness in mat¬ 
ter. 5 55 


God and the World. 


31 


SOCRATES ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 

“My friends, there is still one thing which is very just to 
believe: if the soul be immortal, it requires to be cultivated 
with attention, not only for what we call the time of life, but 
for that which is to follow; I mean eternity; and the least 
neglect here may be attended with endless consequences. If 
death were the final dissolution of being, the wicked would 
be great gainers by it, by being delivered at once from their 
bodies, their souls and their vices. But, as the soul is immor¬ 
tal, it has no other means of being freed from its evils, nor 
any safety in them, but in becoming very good and very wise ; 
for it carries nothing away with it but its good or bad deeds, 
which are commonly the consequences of the education it has 
received, and the cause of eternal happiness or misery. 

“When the dead are arrived at the fatal rendezvous of 
departed souls, whither their demon conducts them, they are 
all judged. Those who have passed their lives in a manner 
neither entirely criminal nor absolutely innocent are sent into 
a place where they suffer pains proportioned to their faults, 
till, being purged and cleansed of their guilt, are afterward 
restored to liberty, and receive the reward of the good actions 
done in the body. Those who are judged to be incurable on 
the account of the greatness of their crimes, who have delib¬ 
erately committed sacrileges, or murders, and other such great 
offenses, the fatal destiny that passes judgment upon them 
hurls them into Tartarus, from whence they never depart. 

“But those who are found guilty of crimes great indeed, 
but worthy of pardon; who have committed violence in the 
transports of rage against their father or mother, or have 
killed some one in a like emotion, and afterward repented, 
these suffer the same punishment and in the same place, but 
for a time only, till, by their prayers and supplications, they 
have obtained pardon from those whom they have injured. 
But those who have passed through life with peculiar 
sanctity of manners, delivered from their base earthly abodes 
as from a prison, are received on high in a pure region, which 
they inhabit; and, as philosophy has sufficiently purified 


32 


The Philosophy of 


them, they live without their bodies through all eternity, in a 
series of joys and delights it is not easy to describe, and 
which the shortness of my time will not permit me to explain 
more at large. 

What I have said will suffice, I conceive, to prove that we 
ought to endeavor strenuously, throughout our whole lives, 
to acquire virtue and wisdom, for you see how great a reward, 
and how high a hope, is proposed to us. And, though the 
immortality of the soul were dubious, every wise man ought 
to assure himself that it is well worth his trouble to risk his 
belief of it in this manner ; and, indeed, can there be a more 
glorious hazard? We ought to enchant ourselves with this 
blessed hope; for which reason I have lengthened this dis¬ 
course so much.” 

The reason why we have quoted so extensively from these 
discourses of Socrates and Plato is, that their doctrines, here 
embodied, may be understood by our readers, and they pre¬ 
pared to refer them to their proper origin, when they come to 
see them adopted by the Roman Catholic church, as they 
have been, the French deists, the spiritualists, the skeptical 
geologists, or wherever else found, and that the contrast 
between them and those of inspiration may at once be seen 
and appreciated ; by which it will also be seen that Socrates 
and Plato have more defenders and disciples than Jesus and 
Paul, even at the present day ; and it is no more strange than 
true, that multitudes of intelligent Christians and theologians 
can, with much greater ease, trace the most of their senti¬ 
ments to Plato rather than Christ, as we shall see before this 
investigation is finished. 


God and the World. 


33 


CHAPTER II. 

ORIGIN OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

The proper date of the origin of the Roman Catholic church 
is in the year 328, A. D., which was that of the conversion of 
Constantine the Great to Christianity, so called. The manner 
of the introduction of the Platonic philosophy into it may be 
seen by the following account: Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical His¬ 
tory, vol. 1, page 276. Origen, a presbyter and catechist of 
Alexandria, was a Platonic philosopher, and introduced it into 
the church. The historian says : “ The principles which gave 
rise to another species of theology, which was called mystic;, 
and what seems at first sight surprising, is, that this mystic 
theology, though formed at the same time, and derived from 
the same source, with the scholastic, yet had a natural ten¬ 
dency to destroy it. The authors of this mystic science are 
not known, but the principles from whence it sprung are 
manifest. Its first promoters proceeded from that known doc¬ 
trine of the Platonic school, which was also adopted by 
Origen and his disciples, that the divine nature was diffused 
through all human souls; that the faculty of reason, from 
which proceeds the health and vigor of the mind, was an 
emanation from God into the human soul, and comprehended 
in it all truth, human and divine. 

“ Origen himself entertained a notion that it was extremely 
difficult, if not impossible, to defend every thing contained in 
the Bible from cavils of heretics and infidels, so long as it 
was explained literally, according to the real import of its 
terms. He had recourse to the fecundity of a lively imagina¬ 
tion, adopting that maxim of theirs, which asserted the 
innocence of defending the truth by artifice and falsehood; 
and maintained that the Holy Scriptures were to be inter¬ 
preted in the same allegorical manner that the Platonists used 
in explaining the history of the gods. In consequence of this 
5 


34 


The Philosophy of 


pernicious rule of interpretation, lie alleged that the words of 
scripture were in many places void of sense, and that though in 
others there were, indeed, certain notions conveyed under the 
outward terms, according to their literal form and import, yet 
it was not in these that the true meaning of the sacred waiters 
was to be sought, but in a mysterious sense arising from the 
nature of things themselves. This hidden sense he endeavors 
to investigate throughout his commentaries, neglecting and 
despising for the most part, the outward letter. 

“In this devious path he displays the most ingenious 
strokes of fancy, though always at the expense of truth, 
whose divine simplicity is scarcely discernible through the 
cobweb vail of allegory. ISTor did the inventions of Origen 
end here; he divided this hidden sense, which he pursued 
with such eagerness, into moral and mystical, or spiritual. 
The moral sense of scripture displays those doctrines that 
relate to the inward state of the soul and conduct of life. 
The mystical, or spiritual, sense represents the nature, laws 
and history of the spiritual or mystical world. But we are 
not yet at the end of the labyrinth; for he subdivided this 
mystical world of his own creation into two distinct regions, 
one of which he called the superior heavens and the other the 
inferior, by which he meant the church. This led to another 
division of the mystical sense into an allegorical, or earthly 
one, adapted to the inferior world, and an anagogical, or 
celestial sense, adapted to the superior region.” The doc¬ 
trines of Christianity were thus fatally corrupted by the 
prince of darkness, coming, as an angel of light, in the person 
of a presbyter; and here and thus was laid the foundation 
of the Papal church, and, with such a foundation, what better 
superstructure could be expected to be reared thereon than 
the Great Mystic Babylon, the mother of harlots and abomi¬ 
nations of the earth, whose exhaustless fountain of corruption 
has infected the world. 

“Origen was the great model whom the most eminent 
Christian doctors followed in their explanation of the truths 
of the gospel, and which were consequently explained accord- 


God and the World. 


mg to tlie rules of the Platonic philosophy as it was corrected 
and modified by this learned father.” This accounts for the 
fact that the Papists have but little or no use for the Bible ; in 
fact, nothing do they dread more than its free circulation. 

Those who desire a more ample and accurate account of this 
matter may consult Gregory JSTazianzen, Platonist among the 
Greeks, and Augustine among the Latins, who for a long time 
were followed as the only patterns worthy of imitation, and 
who, next to Origen, may be considered as the parents and sup¬ 
porters of the philosophical, or scholastic, theology, and 
who were both zealous Platonists, holding for certain all the 
tenets of that philosopher which were not totally repugnant 
to the truths of Christianity. These they laid down as funda¬ 
mental principles, and drew from them a great variety of subtle 
conclusions, which neither Christ nor Plato ever thought of. 

We do not here propose to discuss these sentiments, but 
only introduce them for the purpose of presenting a clear 
view of the chain of historic events connecting the philosophic 
(“falsely so called”) and religious opinions with their 
source, which vitally affect the Christian church, and which, 
as we shall see, constitutes the great burden of prophetic 
prediction. We wish, however, to call attention to one car¬ 
dinal position in the Roman Catholic church, which is the 
claim that its doctrines are infallible, and wdiich the Pope, 
cardinals, bishops, priests or laity dare not molest, change 
or modify, and that these doctrines are not those taught by 
the letter of the Bible, but derived from the construction put 
upon the letter of its teachings, and that, too, not by all ages 
of the Catholic church, but by the fathers, who are considered 
its founders, those especially whom we have introduced, who 
flourished in the third and fourth centuries of the Christian 
era. Those infallible doctrines, therefore, of these fathers, 
adopted from Plato, are printed in notes in what the Catholic 
church claims as its Bible. These notes and comments are 
invariably to be taken by the priests and people of that 
church as the infallible interpretation of the words of scrip¬ 
ture, whether they appear to be such or not. 


36 


The Philosophy of 


It is tlie substantial doctrines of Christianity and Papacy 
which present the strongest contrasts, and not those and 
skeptical materialism. The fact is, materialism or realism, -in 
opposition to the scholastic theology, are the doctrines of 
Christianity in contrast to the doctrines of the ^Nominalism 
of the Leipsic University, whose fundamental principle is, 
that words simply designate the resemblances, or evidences 
of things. 

It is astonishing to see at what expense men have been to 
in order to create self-deception, and to acquire the power to 
deceive others. The inspiring motive, however, seems to have 
been, and is, to avoid the personal accountability and con¬ 
demnation of revealed truth against ungodly unbelief. 

Let us endeavor to dissect the subtle doctrine of this school 
and we shall see how flimsy and fictitious is its foundation. 
Indeed, its author was Origen, who taught that the words of 
scripture did not mean what they import — that in no case 
were we to look for the meaning in the words themselves, but 
in a hidden, spiritual, allegorical, anagogical sense, arising from 
the nature of the things themselves. If this school admitted 
that the words of scripture meant real things — for instance, 
that the word “ judgment ” meant a trial, conviction (if guilty) 
and condemnation,—they would expose themselves, either to 
the necessity of repentance, or its unfavorable decision, to 
avoid which they say the words only mean the semblance of 
things, and, therefore, a judgment means the semblance of a 
judgment, which, of course, is no judgment at all. In 
opposition to this theory and fatal error, we remark that the 
word “judgment” of itself has no semblance whatever to a 
judgment. In order to illustrate, we will suppose that there 
never had been such a thing, or process, as a judgment 
known among a certain class of people, and that some one 
of them should have heard and used the word judgment , do 
we not see that it could have conveyed no idea at all, and, 
therefore, no resemblance of a judgment? In fact, words, as 
words, are no resemblances of things, but simply unintelligi¬ 
ble sounds, and only become intelligible by conventionalism; 


God and the World. 


37 


that is, by the agreement of two parties that certain sounds 
shall mean certain things. This will be seen more clearly by 
carrying out the illustration already introduced. One mind 
explains to another the nature and operation of a judgment, 
taking an individual case as an example, whose duty it is to 
keep a certain law, or suffer a certain penalty; that for its 
violation he would be brought before a certain man, called a 
judge, whose duty it was to hear the witnesses and decide 
accordingly whether the crime had been committed, and if so, 
to deliver the criminal into the hands of another man who 
was to execute the law and inflict the punishment; and now 
it is to be understood that whenever this word or sound is 
used it conveys the idea of this whole operation. Now, do 
we not see that this explanation and mutual understanding 
being essential to invest this word with the power to convey 
the idea of this transaction, that the word without it could 
convey no resemblance of a judgment, or no resemblance of 
any thing whatever ? Is it not, therefore, conclusive, that the 
thing itself must exist in order to make words or sounds or 
resemblances possible % 

It is the unphilosopliic supposition that an image can exist 
without the thing it represents ; the symbol without the thing 
symbolized ; the figure without the prefigure; the shadow 
without the substance. The absurdity of the theory may be 
thus summed up : There can be no resemblance of nothing. 
Therefore, words are utterly unintelligible unless they desig¬ 
nate things ; and to say real things , adds nothing to its force, 
because things of themselves are real, and their opposites are 
nothings — from which we conclude that all ideas, resem¬ 
blances or intelligence are based upon and limited to the 
existence and relation of things. We repeat, therefore, that 
nothing is more unphilosophical, allegorical and unscriptural 
than to institute contrasts between materiality, properly so 
called, which is the opposite of annihilation, and revealed 
religion. 

It may be perfectly proper to institute them between the 
eternal future life of Christianity and that of heathen 


38 


The Philosophy of 


philosophy, which teaches mere blank annihilation, while the 
eternal future of revealed truth presents its inhabitants in the 
garb of eternal realism, in irreconcilable opposition to the 
nominalism which we have here endeavored to expose. 

They are to be spiritualized humanity, glorified, immortal 
bodies, like Christ’s resurrection body, while those of 
heathenism are to be nothing but pure spirits, which is 
explained to be the eternal opposite to the most refined mat¬ 
ter conceivable or inconceivable, perfectly disembodied , in 
which state, (not place,) says Socrates, these souls live with¬ 
out their bodies to all eternity ; while the eternal future of 
the Christian is that they are to live in their bodies, made per¬ 
fect, glorious, powerful, spiritual, incorrupt and immortal, 
but they are, nevertheless, the same bodies that died which are 
to be thus changed and live. 

Indeed, this is the fruitful source of “German rationalism,” 
and if not its vindication, at least its apology; confounding 
the heathen philosophy of Romanism with revealed Chris¬ 
tianity, and that being visionary and unphilosophical, they 
could but declare against it. In their free-thinking, had they 
risen to the dignity of honest and impartial investigation, 
divesting themselves of the opinions and assumptions of this 
man-made institution assuming to be the church of Christ, 
appealing alone to the teachings of the Bible without note or 
comment, they would have found its doctrines of a future 
state so substantial and material, and, therefore, philosophical, 
(or rational, which means the same thing,) that they would 
have found no grounds for instituting a system of rationalism 
as being in the least antagonistic ; and, pursuing this course, 
they would have simply heeded the injunction of the great 
apostle of the gentiles, “Be ready to give every man that 
asketh you, a reason for the hope that is in you.” 

Let the heathen philosopher know that you hope, not for a 
“future state ” simply, but a world, “a new heavens and a 
new earth,” as your eternal abode, which is as real and 
material as the present world; indeed, that it is the same 
world re-created ; that ye, yourselves, are to be as really men 


God and the World. 


39 


and women as you now are ; indeed, tliat you are to be the 
very same persons who lived and died, again resurrected — 
the difference consisting in the nature of the vitality, which, 
of course, is unseen and is eternal instead of temporal, as 
now; that the only God you have, or ever expect to see, 
possesses just such a material body as those of his saints; 
that the present world was made to subserve a temporary 
purpose, precisely such as its Author is accomplishing by it, 
and to be succeeded by a new and eternal one. 

Now, is it to be supposed that any rational man could 
remain honestly skeptical after finding these to be the senti¬ 
ments which constitute the hope of Christianity? Would he 
not have discovered that it was as reasonable that God should 
have assumed a human body as one of any other substance ? 
That it is as reasonable that He should remake the world as 
to have made it at the first? That it is as reasonable He 
should resurrect the dead man as to have made him originally, 
requiring no more skill and power to do the one than the 
other ? That a being capable of making the present world to 
subserve a temporary purpose, is equally capable of remaking 
it to subserve a purpose of eternal duration ? 

Now, is not this absolutely rationalism, and is it not as 
absolutely Christianity ? presenting the sublime harmony of 
its doctrines, and which are those it designates as the funda¬ 
mental principles of revealed truth, with the rationality, 
reason, or philosophy of things. As well may man question 
the existence of God, his own, and that of the world in which 
he lives, as the philosophy of these sublime doctrines of 
revelation. 

In regard to the views of Plato on the formation of the 
world, we are of the opinion that whatever they contain, even 
having the semblance of truth and philosophy in relation to 
this work, were but corruptions of the writings of Moses, 
traditionally obtained through the Gentile World, and also 
the contiguity of Athens, the city of Plato, with Jerusalem. 
It seems almost impossible that as wise a man as Plato, 
versed in all the oriental mythology and the mystic philosophy 


40 


The Philosophy of 


of Paganism, should have been entirely ignorant of the 
Mosaic account of creation in the possession of the Jews, and 
which is shown he was not by the striking correspondence 
between his theory in some of its main features and that 
given by Moses. Let us briefly trace a few of these : Plato — 
“The eternal Wisdom issued His commands to chaos, and 
fire, for the first time, shone in the midst of darkness.” 
Moses—“And the earth was without form and void, and 
darkness was upon the face of the great deep, and the spirit 
of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said, 

4 Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Plato — “ And the 
air separated from the earth and water.” Moses — “ And God 
said, ‘ Let the waters be gathered together into one place, and 
let dry land appear,’ and it was so, and the dry land He 
called earth, and the waters He called seas. And God made 
a firmament,” (or the air,) “which He called heaven, and the 
firmament separated between the waters which were under the 
heavens and the waters which were above the heavens.” 
Plato—“The Supreme Being surveyed His work with com¬ 
placency; He then entered into eternal repose.” Moses — 
“ And God saw every thing that He had made ; and, behold, it 
was very good. And God rested on the seventh day from all 
His works which He had created and made.” 

There are many other points of resemblance, but these are 
sufficient to show the source from whence Plato’s views of 
creation were derived; at the same time his ideas were so 
limited and confused in regard to it, not understanding the 
fall of man and curse of the world as being the cause of all 
its evil and derangement, he attempted to account for it upon 
the mere vague fancy of the malignant principle supposed to 
be in matter simply because it was matter. We see, also, that 
it was in this doctrine of Plato pantheism originated, which 
confounds God with the moving universe, thus: “Scarcely 
had the immortal soul of the world been plunged into this 
ocean of matter” (chaos) “when trying its powers it shook 
the mighty whole, and turning rapidly on itself, drew after it 
the universe, obedient to its efforts.” It w T as here, also, that 


God and the World. 


41 


the doctrines of the French Academy originated, that reason 
was an emanation from the Supreme Being and an infallible 
guide to truth, human and divine. 

Notwithstanding the apparent consistency with truth are 
the opinions of Plato in relation to immortality, they are, 
however, so unlike the doctrines of the eternal future state 
brought to view in revelation, that the comprehensive and 
emphatic declaration of Paul is no more just than true: 
4 ‘ Life and immortality are brought to light by the gospel” 
Hence it must have been shrouded in darkness in the days of 
Socrates and Plato, who lived 165 years before Paul’s day. 
Its fundamental doctrine of the eternal future has its founda¬ 
tion in the resurrection of the dead, which distinguishes it 
from every mythological or philosophical theory ever con¬ 
ceived b} r man, in relation to his final destiny. This event 
proposes to present the soul and body incorruptible and 
immortal. Hence, Hr. Young could in truth sing: 

“ Man, all immortal, hail! heaven 
All lavish of strange gifts to man. 

Thine all the glory, man’s the boundless bliss.” 


Who thinks of adopting the absurdities of the Platonic 
immortality, that after the Supreme Being had made the soul 
of the world, which was a sphere in shape, and had plunged 
it into the disorganized matter of the world, communicating 
to it its own shape, making it also round, then having some 
of the soul essence left of which He made all the immortal 
souls of all men who were to be born, but none for women, 
reserving them in some soul storehouse for distribution to each 
man as he came into the world ? That the intelligence of this 
divine essence, or soul, did not depend upon its ever having a 
body at all; that it was indeed a mere clog to its intellectual 
and moral faculties ? Then, there is his doctrine of metemp¬ 
sychosis, that when the bodies of the wicked die their souls 
transmigrate into women, and other animals, until these also 
die, and then into other living ones, and so continue their 
transmigration, if they remain wicked, forever. It was also 
6 


42 


The Philosophy of 


in this philosophy where the Papal doctrine of purgatory 
originated, as well as its twin sister error of being prayed out 
of it, after which they were received on high, where they 
dwelt eternally without their bodies. This is Rome’s highest 
idea of a future state, and, consequently, leaves no room in her 
creed or conception for the resurrection of the dead. By the 
adoption of these heathen philosophic notions, the Romish 
church has substituted the merit of the prayers of disembodied 
dead saints and the fires of hell for those of the sacrificial 
blood and intercession of Jesus Christ. 

She has also exalted the virgin Mary at the expense of Christ’s 
honor. By reference to those instances recorded in the New 
Testament, relative to what passed between Jesus and Mary, it 
is evident that He did not hold her in any such esteem as does 
the Catholic church. Indeed, He did not pay her the rever¬ 
ence due from ordinary sons to mothers. Perhaps this was to 
guard against her being made an idol. This coolness on the 
part of Jesus has been charged against Him by infidels, as 
wanting in the common feelings of humanity. But they, 
equally with the Papists, fail to comprehend that Jesus was 
not the son of any particular man ; but the Son of the whole 
race of mankind, who in the lowest maternal form of His 
being was infinitely exalted above the mere parental and 
matrimonial instincts incident only to the present state of 
human kind, and which in the immortal world beyond the 
resurrection will be unknown to its inhabitants, in which, 
Jesus says, “They neither marry nor are given in marriage, 
but are equal unto the angels of God,” in this respect. 

The passages to which we referred are these, John iii, 2: 
“And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus said unto 
him, ‘They have no wine.’ Jesus said unto her, ‘Woman, 
what have I to do with thee % ’ ”—thus administering reproof 
for her interference, and which does not look much like the 
Papal claim, that Mary is to be adored as the Mother of God, 
when Jesus did not even address her as His mother. Luke 
ii, 48: “And when they saw Him, they were amazed; and 
His mother said unto Him, ‘ Son, why hast Thou thus dealt 


God and the World . 


43 


with us ? Behold, Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrow¬ 
ing. ’ And He said unto them, ‘ How is it that ye sought Me ? 
Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business V ” 
This circumstance occurred when Jesus was only twelve years 
of age ; and we see even then how Mary received this sharp 
reproof for the want of comprehending His great mission into 
the world; and, besides, for her presumption in calling Joseph 
His father, when His father was no man, but the great God of 
the universe, and His business was with the race, and not 
with any particular woman. If the Papists had followed the 
example of Jesus, in the estimation in which the virgin Mary 
should be held, and was held, by the God-man, they would 
have been somewhat freer from the sin of idolatry — “in wor¬ 
shiping the creature more than the Creator”—than that 
which has always characterized them. Mark iii, 31: “ There 
came then His brethren and His mother, and standing with¬ 
out, sent unto Him, calling Him ; and the multitude sat about 
Him, and said unto Him: ‘Behold! Thy mother and Thy 
brethren without seek Thee.’ And He answered them, say¬ 
ing : ‘ Who is My mother or My Brethren V And He 

looked around about on them which sat about Him, and 
said : 6 Behold, My mother and My brethren! For who¬ 

soever shall do the will of God, the same is My brother, 
and My sister, and My mother.’ ” Here we have an 
absolute disavowal by Jesus that Mary was any more in 
His estimation than any other good woman. Indeed, it 
would seem that she had a very low and sordid idea of 
this wonderful being, whom all the angels of God were to 
worship, if it rose even above the Jewish standard of mere 
curiosity. We cannot conceive, from all these passages, and 
they are all the history we have in relation to it, that Mary 
entertained any such exalted views of Jesus as those possessed 
even by the disciples, and which led Him to say on another 
occasion, “ A prophet is not without honor save in his own 
country and among Ills own Ttin .” Peter said to Jesus, “We 
know that Thou knowest all things, and needest not that any 
man should tell Thee. Yes, Thou art the Christ, the Son of 


44 


The Philosophy of 


tlie living God.” And that acknowledgment by Thomas : 
“My Lord and my God.” 

Is it not certain from this, that either Jesus or the Papists 
are sadly mistaken in the esteem in which the virgin Mary 
should be held \ This disposition in the Romish church to 
exalt Mary and degrade Jesus is strikingly displayed in a 
picture hung in the Cathedral in Montreal. Jesus stands at a 
carpenter’s bench, with a jack-plane in His hand, while the 
virgin Mary stands by clad in queenly splendor. But this is 
only another of the abominations of the “man of sin.” The 
French deists reject Jesus and the Bible as a revelation from 
God. The Papists do the same by exalting a woman above 
Him, and substituting for its doctrines the opinions of the 
fathers, as they denominate them. But if the rule of inter¬ 
pretation adopted by the fathers of the Catholic church, such 
as that held by Origen, “that the words of scripture do not 
mean what they import,” be applied to the instances of what 
thus passed between Jesus and Mary, she would no doubt 
come out superior to Jesus in each encounter, and exactly the 
reverse of this would be taught. Let the Papal church, even 
at this late day, give her deluded people the Bible, without 
note or comment, and in a few years, we doubt not, her whole 
system would be overthrown. The Bible no more teaches 
Platonism than it teaches Mohammedanism. The doctrines 
of the French deists and the deistical Catholic church, both 
adopted from Plato, are as much at war with the true philos¬ 
ophy of man and nature, as with the teachings of the sacred 
scriptures ; and it is from superficial and erroneous views of 
either, or both, which do now, or ever have, given rise to the 
least contradiction of sentiment between them. The doctrine 
of the right of independent thought and reason, claimed by 
Favre for the French deists, on the grounds that it is the 
divine essence implanted in mankind in general, and by obey¬ 
ing which is to obey God, as also taught by Plato, and is, 
therefore, an infallible guide to faith and practice upon which 
the Papal deists put quite a modification or limitation, who, 
from the Pope down to the priests and people, confine freedom 


God and the World . 


45 


of thought and reason to the fathers and founders of their 
faith, whose teachings admit of no change, but from the 
deistical claim that reason is an infallible guide. Are not the 
Papal deists consistent ? If the exercise of this divine goddess 
of reason, located in the human brain of these fathers, was 
free and untrammeled, which we suppose no one will doubt, 
especially in regard to Origen and his coadjutors, who, in their 
vindication of Plato, contended that the revelation contained 
in the Bible did not mean what it said, but generally quite 
the reverse, so much so as to make it teach Catholicism, both 
in its original and present form, we say that with such inde¬ 
pendence of thought, which surely meets the highest demands 
of the French Academy, pursued, in moulding the faith of 
the Papal church originally, on the approved basis of deism 
and spiritualism, as derived from Plato. What right or 
necessity, we ask, is there of others coming after, to think 
independently upon the same subject, unless they should 
come to exactly the same conclusions, corresponding to the 
infallible doctrines of the pagan and Papal fathers, with 
Plato as the common source of sentiment? And, suppose 
they did thus correspond, they would still be superfluous. 
The assumption, therefore, of the French deists, following 
the God-essence implanted in their brain as an infallible guide 
to reason and truth, qualifying them any better to judge of 
what is truth, than the same gods of reason qualified those 
ancient fathers, living so much nearer the time of Plato, the 
exhaustless fountain of all their light and truth, to say 
the least, is very immodest. 

We would not, however, be understood as questioning the 
perfect liberty of thought and reason, or that truth can suffer 
by investigation; but that reason is an infallible guide — a 
Deity set up in the human brain — is, by the confusion of the 
sentiments of mankind, shown to be simply preposterous. 
The standard by which men are to test the correctness of their 
conclusions in the exercise of the reasoning faculties is con¬ 
tained in the revelation and works of God, which harmoni¬ 
ously and reciprocally teach human and divine relationship ; 


46 


The Philosophy of 


and it is from the written revelation alone that a response can 
possibly be obtained to the questions which forever press an 
answer upon the contemplation of man, “ Whence am I, and 
what my destiny?” The revelations of nature alone leave 
man involved in eternal darkness and confusion in relation to 
these questions. Even Socrates and Plato would never have 
had the dim, shadowy light upon these subjects possessed by 
them, only as they were transmitted by tradition, originating 
in the written revelation of God, but, as we have seen, greatly 
corrupted, either by design or ignorance, or both. If the 
modern deists should set up the claim that it was only in the 
present age that man had received this divine endowment of 
infallible reason, there might be some propriety in the 
assumption of the French Academy; but that they should 
call in question the vast amount of the intelligence of the 
ages, and should wage an exterminating warfare against the 
same infallible gods of reason, with which all mankind in all 
ages have been endowed—for it is admitted that this divine 
and unerring god of reason is the common inheritance of all 
men — seems to be the commission of an unpardonable sacri¬ 
lege, and which is rendered more so when we consider the 
fact that all this intelligence has been obtained by freedom 
of thought , because in its very nature there can be none other. 
If a man thinks at all, he thinks freely. He may, indeed, 
be compelled or induced by the force of surrounding circum¬ 
stances to profess what he does not think right or true, but 
this does in nowise shackle the innate freedom of his reason 
and if that which purports to be a revelation from God is 
indeed such, in vain may the little circumscribed intellects 
of men of any or all ages find contradictions in its teachings, 
or inharmonious antagonism with the philosophy of nature. 
Indeed, the contrary suppositions arise only from superficial 
views of either the sentiments of revelation or the truths of 
nature. 


God and the World. 


47 


CHAPTER III. 

MAN AND THE WORLD CREATED PERFECT AT FIRST. 

In the discussion of this vast subject, we of course concede 
the argument that there are limitations beyond which no finite 
mind, however he may be disposed, is capable of pursuing his 
investigations. That man is a created being, necessarily 
involves this circumspection of his powers, and whether his 
creation is the result of laws and principles now operating in 
nature, running back in a connected line of retrogressive 
development to the generation of the most simple forms of 
atomic organization, or that he came forth at once from the 
plastic hand of an intelligent creator, an embodiment of the 
most perfectly finished mechanism and harmonic physical 
organization, is immaterial to the argument of the object of 
that creation and its final destiny. We may, however, remark, 
that the latter of these suppositions come vastly nearer the 
grasp of human conception, and therefore probably nearer the 
truth. 

For example, how much easier to comprehend the idea as 
well as the philosophy of the work, that the first pair of our 
race should have been created directly out of the earth, that 
man’s maker should have selected its chemical elements, 
arranging them in the exact proportion essential to the forma¬ 
tion of the bones, muscles, nerves, arteries and veins, and 
every thing else which enter into the physiological structure 
of the human system, including the vital organs and those of 
sense, with all their requisite connection of nerves and brain ; 
and then from the same substance to have made arterial blood, 
containing all the chemical properties adapted to recuperate 
the loss sustained by the common action of the voluntary and 
involuntary departments of the system in carrying on the 
functions of life, and then infusing it into those arteries. 


48 


The Philosophy of 


While we have to do with the fact that man was created, 
and its sequence, that a being of vastly superior intelligence 
and power than that possessed by himself was demanded to 
achieve the act, how much more philosophical is the idea, 
involved in this direct and almost instantaneous creation, than 
that it was done by a long concatenation of indirect links in 
the chain of being, running, perhaps, through thousands of 
years or ages, commencing by the compression of matter from 
its eternal, etherialized condition, into that consistency 
required for such a purpose, and then endowing any two of its 
atoms with a peculiarity, or chemical affinity, which, when 
put together, constitutes the simplest and most primary form 
of creation, and that these simple atoms, thus arranged and 
combined, should also be endowed with the power, not only 
of reproducing themselves, as those of the direct creation 
were, each species after its kind, but of producing more com¬ 
plicated and perfect forms of organization than themselves, 
endowing each in the order of development with still greater 
and more stupendous powers, in the operation of which we 
behold the marvelous phenomena of vegetable life starting 
into being, and continuing the reproduction until its highest 
forms were reached; emerging from the highest of these, 
insect tribes appear, each of which are endowed with the 
power to produce others, higher than themselves, and from 
the highest of these, the lower, and then the higher, animals 
are developed, such as the monkey tribes; and finally from the 
highest of these man comes into being, the great hierarchy of 
all, though it would seem without any right to reign, because 
coming last into being, and, therefore, more dependent than 
any of his predecessors, inheriting no other royal blood than 
that which came through an ancestry of vegetables, insects, 
shell-fish and monkeys. 

Now we insist that such a hypothesis of creation requires 
the intervention of a God, or gods, possessed of skill and 
power for its prosecution, infinitely superior to the idea for 
which we contend, namely, a direct and perfect creation at 
once as the acts of one God. 


God and the World. 


49 


How much more difficult, for instance, would it be for a 
machinist to be required to make a locomotive engine simply, 
than that he was to so construct it that it would combine in 
itself all the tools and machinery necessary to make another 
engine, and to so connect and arrange them into the frame¬ 
work of the first, that, when set in motion, and while doing 
its ordinary work of drawing trains of cars along the road, it 
would itself, to the astonishment of beholders, construct and 
turn out other locomotives, not only like itself, but much 
superior, both in capacity and finish, and that each of these 
should continue the work of the construction of others, every 
one of increasing superiority, including also the transmission 
of a mechanical skill by which each of these would be able 
also to manufacture their own tools, and all the necessary 
machinery, laths, drill press, planer and forge, and all other 
apparatus used in the manufacture of locomotives, and all 
this endless succession of such machines reproducing them¬ 
selves, each of which being more beautiful and powerful* than 
its immediate predecessor, necessitating not a touch of the 
machinist’s hand after having made and put into successful 
operation the first locomotive. 

Now we care not whether the skill here manifested is called 
God, gods, or nature, it is vastly greater than that required 
and manifested in the work of creation, which we ascribe as 
the direct production of the single God of the universe. These 
manifestations are exemplified in the continual operations of 
the vegetable and animal kingdoms around us. 'With the 
exception of the two important principles alluded to in the 
above illustration of the developing theory of creation, one of 
which is, that the vegetable and animal reproduction of their 
species is identical, or, in the words of Moses, “ After its 
kind,” not the least superior in durability, structure, or beauty 
than that possessed by any of the generations from which it 
sprung. The other is, that these know nothing whatever of 
the creation of the first pair of each species, and as the prog¬ 
eny are not different or superior to their progenitors, there¬ 
fore, the first representatives of each species were, at least, as 
7 


50 


The Philosophy of 


perfect as any of those generations which have sprung from 
them, the conclusion from which is, that the creation of all 
things was not prosecuted on what is called the “differentia¬ 
tion” theory; that is, that like causes do not produce like effects, 
which we have illustrated in the production and reproduction 
of locomotives, but upon that contained in the Bible. If the 
advocates of this theory are startled at thus beholding the 
amount of skill and power demanded for its execution, and 
contend that the incipient links in this chain of creation did 
not receive the power to thus develop, or produce, themselves, 
and reproduce others of a superior nature, as this would be 
admitting the existence of an a priori, or an intelligent, cause 
beyond, of which these are simply the effects ; but, in such a 
denial, it is necessary they should assume the equally absurd 
position, that these interdepending links, possessing this pecu¬ 
liar chemical endowment, must have had it eternally. This, how¬ 
ever, is proved to be unpliilosophical, by the fact that man him¬ 
self, the last link, the great end, endowed with the concentration 
of all the wisdom and power of this developed creation, each 
species of which, from the lowest forms of nature up to the 
highest, had increased its capacity for superior production, 
until man came into existence, as the result, the grand mas¬ 
ter-piece of creation. We say, that as this being —man — 
has no such creative skill and power, qualifying him, like any 
and all the preexisting links in the chain, to produce other 
beings different and superior to himself, not even capable of 
comprehending the physiological laws of his own nature, and 
that, too, in regard to the lowest and simplest of his being, and 
not only so, but equally unable to comprehend the philo¬ 
sophic principles involved in the structure of the most insig¬ 
nificant insect in existence, and utterly incapacitated to create 
a single spire of grass, or the commonest weed of the field; 
while the reproduction of his species demands only that degree 
of sense possessed by the lowest animals and insects of nature; 
being, therefore, absolutely dispossessed of any such developing 
power, proves that the other lower links in the chain of being also 
had no such power, enabling them to produce certain forms of 


God and the World. 


51 

things or beings, as atoms combined for a purpose superior 
to themselves, hence creation could not have been prosecuted 
upon such a hypothesis. It is precisely here, also, where the 
Darwin theory of the derivation of species by variation, 
according to the law of natural selection, fails, and this beino- 
its fundamental principle, of course all its conclusions must 
be erroneous. 

The experiments which have been produced by him and 
others-have never risen higher than varieties, none of which 
even approximates the development of a species. Indeed, 
they amount to nothing more than those results manifested 
by the cultivation of fruits, flowers and vegetables, and the 
breeding of animals, which is as old as the earliest history of 
the race. If greater differences are thus evolved in the 
animal than in the vegetable kingdom, it has its legitimate 
solution in animal endowment of sensible impression, exciting 
the physical laws of formation, stamping animal offspring 
with corresponding greater peculiarities of feature, as the 
organs of sense, the inlets of intelligence are higher than 
any endowment of mere vegetable existence. In fact, the very 
terms, derivation and selection , imply creation of which they 
know nothing, as well as a creator, the latter being a philo¬ 
sophical necessity, the former his work. 

In order to put this theory in the strongest light and to give 
its advocates the greatest advantage, let us suppose that all 
species, both of vegetables and animals, were derived the one 
from the other in succession, and what have we as a result 
but a unit of derivation, and also that this unit is no more a 
necessary existence than that that existence is itself unde¬ 
rived ? It will not do to discriminate among different species 
in order to avoid the unsatisfactory task of thus accounting 
for the existence of the higher, and assert that this was 
derived from something else, that was not — for nothing can 
be more philosophic than that if the lowest species came thus 
into existence, so did the highest, for it is not claimed that 
any of these did actually produce any others, but that each 
was a mere involuntary means through which some power 


52 


The Philosophy of 


beyond worked in the production of other species, and, 
besides, to draw such a line of demarkation, concedes the 
error of the whole theory, because this exception, not being 
derived from any previously existing species, must have been 
created by a power outside of itself capable of such an 
achievement, and, of course, superior to the species thus 
coming into existence, unless the equally philosophic 
absurdity be assumed that the less produced the greater; 
and, notwithstanding this, it is a fact that this whole deriva¬ 
tion theory, in every assumed phase, rests on the philosophic 
reversion of all natural law and the indispensable connection 
of things and the principle of their causation. 

If in this chain of being, embracing all the various species 
of vegetables and animals, it was assumed that the greatest — 
and, therefore, man — was first in existence, and that all other 
species were derived from him by natural transmission, or 
came by the power of his handiwork, there might be some 
plausibility in the theory, for it would not only harmonize 
with universal phenomena, but introduce a power and wisdom 
capable of doing something. But the defenders of this doc¬ 
trine in their egotistic attempts to drive Glod out of His 
universe, discovering that it would not do to bring man into 
existence first, because it would necessitate the prior existence 
and perfection of all those departments of surrounding nature 
essential to the maintenance of his existence, even for a single 
day—tiie air to breathe, the water to drink, the animal and 
vegetable food to sustain life. In fact, these imply the perfect 
existence of all other species, as well as that of all the 
elements of nature, locating every species, either of animals, 
vegetables or insects, in its own congenial element, wherein 
only its power to live and propagate its own species was 
possible, and hence a perfect universe at the outset, and, 
therefore, a prior existence of a power or being, not only 
superior to all other existences, but having not the least 
dependence upon other things for his own existence, except 
that of space, duration and matter, which are themselves uncre ¬ 
ated and eternal. Here we have the great source of derivation. 


God and-the World . 


53 


Now, if the existence of man is not to be accounted 
for upon this principle of natural selectual and derivation 
from the lower to the higher species, which its most intelli¬ 
gent advocates are now beginning to concede, then he must 
have derived his being from one possessing higher faculties 
and powers than himself; and, if so, why may we nut as 
philosophically refer the origin of all other species and exist¬ 
ences to the same source of capacity and power % And, there¬ 
fore, if man had a direct creation, how much more natural 
that every thing of a simpler make had the same; at least, 
that He made the first pair and endowed them with the power 
to reproduce others like themselves. 

But, according to some of these theorists, whose egoism 
blinds them to every thing but the most superficial philosophy 
and uninvestigated science, we are presented with a man, 
whose ancestors were monkeys; and following along down, 
according to the grade of intellect, the progenitors of these 
were elephants ; from these in turn sprang the next lower in 
the scale of existence, until the ephemeral insect is reached. 
It may be a zoophyte, part vegetable and part animal, form¬ 
ing the connecting link between these two kingdoms. Con¬ 
tinuing the declining scale, we arrive at the lowest vegetable 
formation ; and if this came from a seed, the seed must have 
been a perfect formation, for an imperfect seed will not germi¬ 
nate and produce perfect vegetation, or such as will produce 
other perfect seed; or, if it did not come from a seed, then 
the vegetable which produced it had a perfect formation or 
creation, because an imperfect one will not produce seed so 
perfect that it will reproduce itself. But according to this 
theory we have the first seed of a single species, from which 
the universe and all it contains evolved, or has been derived, 
as the phrase is; now let us inquire what was combined in 
this single seed in order that such results may have sprung 
from it. 

We answer, an embryonic universe, or a world, at least, 
containing all the elements or chemical properties in organic 
design and philosophic adaptation of every species of animals 


54 


The Philosophy of 


and vegetables, with man at their head. It mnst also have 
included all material principles or natural laws entering into 
the formation of the solar system — the sun, planets and all 
their satellites — from which the world derives its motions, and 
without which animal and vegetable life would be impossible, 
all of which, under certain conditions of evolution, under the 
law of natural selection, this whole universe came into 
existence. 

But as natural selection must take place according to chemi¬ 
cal affinity, and this according to prior elementary endow¬ 
ment, therefore this seed combined in itself all the mechanical 
laws of all the motions of animate and inanimate nature ; in a 
word, of every thing that lives and moves, or is made to move, 
in the universe was derived from it, and therefore owes the 
origin of its existence to this wonderful seed. Now this 
seed either made itself, or it was made ;—that it made itself 
presupposes its power of volition and intelligence consequent 
upon it, but this invests it with all the attributes essential to 
constitute a creator, and brings into existence the great and 
only source of derivation, and terminates the controversy by 
presenting the only philosophic escape from any theory of 
natural derivation, and if this seed was not intelligent is it not 
the height of absurdity to suppose it made itself, and more so 
still that it was made by a less organized being or thing than 
itself? May we not as well suppose nothing to be capable of 
putting forth an act and of producing something. 

But it is also evident that the first or remotest effects evolved, 
or were derived from, this seed were no part of creation, because 
taking place according to its own inherent endowment or con¬ 
stitution, and this constitutional endowment must have been 
the work of an intelligent creator, abstract and superior to 
itself, so that under certain fixed and invariable conditions a 
universe was evolved. We call this God ; do we not therefore 
perceive, that, instead of this theory being able to supersede the 
necessity of a creator apart and independent of all things the 
universe contains which were not eternal, possessing the skill 
and power to make the first seed from which each species 


God and the World. 


55 


sprang, or tlie first egg from which each species of animals and 
insects came into existence, that it necessitates the existence of 
a being of vastly more skill and power, one capable of com¬ 
bining in a single seed a rudimental universe. But we cannot 
here pursue this subject further, as it would require a large 
volume of itself to follow and expose, through all their devious 
windings, the errors of this unsystematic confusion, and we 
have simply taken this short cut to expose its fundamental 
grounds of defense, and which we close by introducing a few 
selections of classic and philosophic sublimity, and which 
simply expresses the fact as to the manner in which this great 
work was done: “And the Lord God made every plant of the 
field before it was in the ground, and every seed after its kind, 
and he said: Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding 
seed and the fruit trees yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed 
is in itself upon the earth ; and God made every plant of the 
field before it was in the earth and every herb of the field 
before it grew.” 

Here is comprehended in the simplest and most unostenta¬ 
tious words a philosophy of creation which is in exact accord¬ 
ance with the natural necessities of the case, and which 
beautifully solves the mystery which any theory of man 
only serves to confuse; each seed or plant producing it was 
made perfect at first, distinct and identical, and from which 
no other or new species ever have or can be produced ; there¬ 
fore, Darwinism is in as bold conflict with true science and 
philosophy as with the world’s revealed creation, furnished 
by its author himself. Are we not, therefore, driven b} r 
the philosophy and nature of things, to the conclusion that 
this developing theory of creation has not only no claim to 
science or philosophy, and, if stripped of its sophistry, cannot 
be admitted within this field, and is it not as clear that in order 
to get rid of one God of creation, it involves the necessity of 
a multitude, each of whom must be possessed of as much 
skill and power, and be as abstract from his universe, as we 
accord to the one. These numerous entities are perpetually 
at work between any and every two links in the chain of 


56 


The Philosophy of 


existences, directly endowing the lower and more insignificant 
one with power to produce from itself one of superiority ; or, 
if they do not occupy a separate location between each species 
carrying on this work of intelligence, which every single prod¬ 
uct of nature manifests, without exception, from the lowest 
to the highest, the difference being only in degree, then these 
skillful entities must be confounded with the things and 
beings they produce, which only serves to complicate and 
render the theory more erroneous still, by making these gods, 
or causes, the authors of their own existence. Thus are the 
advocates of this theory of creation driven to the assumption 
of the pantheistic system, and in order to dispose of one God 
of intelligence, assume the existence of thousands of just 
such, and instead of suffering him to have an abstract being 
from the universe he made, and call him God, they denominate 
their god nature , and mix him up or confound him with the 
elementary substances, endowed with chemical affinities and 
resistances, formed and moved by their own power; hence, 
we have an exhibition of the still greater absurdity, of infinite 
intelligence inseparably allied with the gross matter compos¬ 
ing the world, the solar system and what it contains. The 
advocates of this theory have no claim to originality, for it is 
nothing but Plato’s idea of the soul of the world, plunged 
into the ocean of chaotic matter, producing its formation and 
motion, as we have seen. Must we not, therefore, give up all 
claim to reason or philosophy, or adipit that above, beyond 
and prior to the creation of the world, there existed, as a 
philosophical necessity, a being possessed of infinite wisdom 
and almighty power, to whom all things owe their origin. We 
use the terms formed and created synonymous, just as 
they are used in the Bible, descriptive of this w T ork, and 
not in that sense which means to make things out of 
nothing. Its author nowhere claims to have made all things 
out of nothing, but, on the contrary, to have made one thing 
out of another — man, for instance, out of the dust of the 
ground. As it involves a natural impossibility, not only to 
make all things, but any thing, out of nothing, or vice versa 


God and the World. 


57 


that the least atom of matter can be annihilated, therefore we 
must rank the eternity of matter — endless duration—bound¬ 
less space, and the eternal existence of God, as philosophic 
necessities. The greatness of the mind of God men can no 
more approximate in fathoming, than they can set limits to 
duration, bounds to space, or conceive the time when nothing 
existed, the conclusion of which would be that nothing exists 
now, for the axiom is no more ancient than true, “From 
nothing, nothing comes.” If there were no other arguments 
to prove these to be philosophical necessities, the fact that it 
requires infinitely more credulity and stifling of reason to 
reject them than to believe, would alone be conclusive. For 
instance, we approximate no nearer the annihilation of a 
particle of matter by supposing its infinitesimal divisibility, 
than of comprehending the nature of God by reducing Him to 
any kind of an imaginary abstraction or essence. Such 
attempts, aside from what is written of Him, must forever bs 
characterized with the same degree of absurdity as to question 
His existence altogether. We hear it said, for instance, that 
“God is a pure spirit having no body.” This is from the 
Catholic creed, but originally from Platonic philosophy and 
similar to it, that “God is a pure spirit, without body or 
parts.” The question is not whether these declarations are 
true or false, but that those who make them assume to answer 
the question in the affirmative. ‘ ‘ Can’ st thou by searching 
find out God? Can’st thou find out the Almighty to per¬ 
fection?” The Bible, the world, and the nature of man 
corroboratively reveal all that can be known, and vastly more 
than can be comprehended, in the present limited condition 
of the human mind respecting God. Nature reveals its part 
on the principle, that, in its construction and object, a work 
bears the impress of the workman; that the order of mind 
and degree of its intelligence is manifested by what it pro¬ 
duces: the conclusion from which is, at least in one of its 
most important phases, that if we find the world and the 
things with which we are conversant organic, possessing form 
and embodiment, then we must infer that such is the nature 
8 


58 


The Philosophy of 


of their Maker. On the other hand, if we find by the investi¬ 
gation of things that the further we advance from formation 
and approximate disembodiment, disorganization or simple 
elements, we find the greatest amount of intelligence and 
power manifested, then we must infer that God is a simple 
element, and, therefore, the furthest removed from organic 
form, or substantial being. But when we find the former sup¬ 
position and not the latter v to be the fact — the human brain, 
for instance, to be the most perfect piece of created workman¬ 
ship, the seat of intelligence and power, the distinguishing 
characteristic of him who was created in the image of his 
Maker—are we not shut up to the conclusion that the 
Creator Himself is the most exquisite embodiment of form 
and beauty in the universe ? That God is revealed by His 
works of nature is not a mere metaphysical deduction, but is 
clearly shown by the following declaration of the great 
apostle: Rom., i, 22—“ For the invisible things of Him” 
(God) 4 4 from the creation of the world are clearly seen , being 
understood by the things that are made , even His eternal 
power and Godhead.” Hot only, therefore, do we see that 
those declarations of God’s disembodiment conflict with the 
vast fund of information revealed in nature, whose universal 
organizations establish that of the Godhead, but more so, if 
possible, with that contained in the written word with which 
this Being has furnished the world of Himself; and, there¬ 
fore, Christianity, as well as animate and inanimate nature 
proclaims, with the voice of eternal harmony, the Being of the 
Godhead , which term itself comprehends the embodiment as 
well as the Unity of God. 

Besides this there is the presumption of the position, that if 
a man assumes to know of wbat God is not formed or com¬ 
posed, or that he has no body, he also knows of what he 
essentially is; therefore, one of the presumptions must be 
true, either that which dissipates the Deity into that which, so 
far as human comprehension is capable of going, is annihila¬ 
tion, or that he is an embodied being. In fact, if we concede 
the idea that God is a being or person at all, abstract from the 


God and the World. 


59 


universe, it matters not what terms we employ for the purpose, 
we oppose that of his disembodiment. This whole speculation 
concerning the nature and locality of God, aside from that 
revealed in his works and word, originates, we apprehend, 
mostly in a misconception of the nature and source of power, 
supposing it to be purely physical instead of mental. We 
cannot stop here to argue the position we believe to be true, 
that all power, which is the result of motion, is mental; no 
matter where in the universe it is seen displayed, it neverthe¬ 
less originates in the mind, and is the exercise of a thought. 
He who therefore comprehends to the greatest degree the ele¬ 
ments of nature, and the law of equilibrium by which they are 
governed, and who succeeds in discovering the most efficient 
means for throwing them out of balance with each other, and 
of taking the advantage of them again, by mechanical devices, 
as they move toward their equalization, produces the most 
powerful physical effects, and has therefore the most powerful 
mind. Such capacity is not at all dependent upon physical 
dimension ; hence, in the true philosophy of dynamics, giants 
are no more than dwarfs. As an illustration of this idea, take 
the locomotive, whose conception, construction and adaption 
to the elements of nature is simply the result of thought, and 
which in power exceeds the thunders of the heathen Jove. As, 
therefore, the greatness of mind, and consequently of power, 
does not depend upon physical dimension, God, in order to 
have infinite intelligence and almighty power, may have no 
other or larger dimension than a man, and be as really an 
organized being as he, and yet be the great creator and gov¬ 
ernor of the universe. That this is not false reasoning or rash 
conclusion is demonstrated by his incarnation in the person 
of Jesus Christ, who, after his resurrection from the dead, 
declared u Allpower in heaven and earth is given unto me” 
He was, therefore, in form and substance like a man, and yet 
he was almighty. This has its explanation in the fact that it 
was the emergement of God himself in the form and body of 
mankind. “ In him dwelt all the fullness of the godhead bod 
ily,” which we shall consider hereafter. 


60 


The Philosophy of 


It is also said that God is immateriality; and if the term was 
thus employed to convey the idea, that it was of but little con¬ 
sequence for us to know of what he is or is not, we would not 
object, but it is inadmissible from another consideration, in 
addition to what we have already said, that it expresses more 
than any man knows, or can know, about the composite nature 
of a being infinitely above himself, as well as it also contra¬ 
dicts the legitimate conclusion drawn from the nature of mind, 
matter and motion, which requires that material agencies can 
only come in contact with matter, so as to produce its motion, 
which God must have done in the creation, and does in the gov¬ 
ernment of the worlds. But the attempt to comprehend his 
nature, or else come to some absurd conclusion beyond what 
is written in the book of nature and revelation, is an exhibition 
of about as much wisdom as that which the lower animals 
might assume in discussing the nature of man, who, seeing 
him possessed of such vast capacities, manifested in his incom¬ 
prehensible discoveries and investigations, controlling to so 
great an extent all the elements of which the world is com¬ 
posed, even the swift-winged lightnings made subservient to 
his will. In view of such stupendous phenomena, they should 
conclude it to be impossible that the nature of such a being 
should be composed of the same gross material with them¬ 
selves ; in fact that he could have no material body at all which 
occupies space, and therefore has no particular locality in the 
universe, and must be everywhere equally distributed. This 
would be quite a summary disposition to make of a man. 
But would not these conclusions be as philosophic and proper 
in regard to man’s nature, as thpse he assumes are in regard to 
that of God ? It is the tendency, especially of the present age, 
either to deny the existence of God or accord to him a vision¬ 
ary, intangible and unphilosophic existence. Indeed, the 
whole fabulous and mythological history of the past, includ¬ 
ing to some extent the views of Christians, have seemed to vie 
with each other in this field of fancy, supposing they were 
doing honor to the God of the worlds, by ascribing to him 
phases of existence which he does not claim to possess, either 


God and the World. 


Cl 


ill nature or revelation, and which in the nature of things he 
cannot, in protestation of which, if we should hear him speak 
at all it would be, “The wisdom of man is foolishness with 
God,” or, “Canst thou by searching find out God, canst thou 
find out the Almighty unto perfection l” 


62 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER IV. 

THE HEW GENESIS OF THE SKEPTICAL GEOLOGISTS. 

As preposterous as such theories appear respecting the 
nature of God, they do not reach the extremes to which men 
have carried us in their disquisitions relating to his knowledge, 
having no idea upon the subject, or, if they had, were afraid 
to express it; they have followed one another, and used cer¬ 
tain expressions, which are supposed to be signs of ideas, but 
in this case significant only of their non-existence. Perhaps 
the'most ambiguous of these are as follows: “With God, it 
is one eternal now.” “With Him there is no thought, or 
after-thought.” Upon which, if any definition is attempted, 
it is this : God foreknew from all eternity whatsoever comes to 
pass. Now, if these and similar declarations are true, for 
which, however, we do not believe there is a shadow of 
authority, it argues that God never thought at all; for thought 
implies a time prior to the mental operation, or else it exists 
without any. Now what we know about thought, reason, 
purpose, conclusion, resulting in intelligence, is, that they 
are reciprocally dependent on each other, yet this theory 
makes God, not only intelligent, but infinitely so, without any 
thought at all, although thinking is the indispensable opera¬ 
tion by which thought is produced; notwithstanding, also, 
God has clearly and emphatically declared the reverse to be 
true, thus: 4 4 The Lord of Hosts has sworn, saying, surely as 
I thought , so shall it come to pass ; and as I have purposed, 
so shall it stand.” Again: 44 If that nation against whom I 
have pronounced turn from their evil way, I will turn from 
the evil I thought to do unto them.” Also this: 44 And as 
they returned and said, like as the Lord of hosts thought to 
do unto us, so hath he dealt with us.” 44 For thus saith the 


God and the World. 


63 


Lord of Hosts, as I thought to punish you, when your fathers 
provoked me to wrath, and repented not, so again have I 
thought to do well unto Jerusalem.” We might continue 
such quotations, but these are sufficient to settle the question 
that God thinks, at least with those who regard the Bible as 
authority. There is, however, one passage which is supposed 
to be in opposition to this view, but which, of course, cannot 
be, unless the Bible is in opposition with itself, which is this: 
“My thoughts are not your thoughts, for, as the heavens are 
higher than the earth, so are my thoughts higher than your 
thoughtsbut we see this only harmonizes and confirms the 
others, showing that God thinks, and, by comparing his 
thoughts to our thoughts, showing the nature of the operation 
to be one. All thought is of the same nature, differing only 
in degree, according to the things contemplated and the minds 
thus engaged. We are also aware that it is said the existence 
of thought argues its succession; therefore, every mind that 
thinks must have been once ignorant. If we were only deal¬ 
ing with those who acknowledge the Bible as authority, we 
would simply leave the objector to prosecute his contest with 
its author himself; but as it is also with the skeptics of the 
age we grapple, we are obliged to meet them upon their own 
grounds of argument, however preposterous. That this result 
would follow in regard to all created minds, we, of course, 
must admit; not so, however, with God. It must be remem¬ 
bered that he did not begin to live, and then in a few years 
die, as is the case with man. Only concede the eternity of 
God, not with the qualification that he is self-existent, which 
seems to convey the idea, not only that there was a time before 
he existed, but also that he might have caused his own exist¬ 
ence, and we only object to these expressions because they 
attempt an explanation where none is possible. But only 
concede God’s existence, running parallel with duration, 
which is the height of absurdity to question, and may not 
trains of thought, in endless succession, have passed his great 
mental tribunal, while contemplating the infinity of his works, 
past and to come ? And does this any more argue that God 


64 


The Philosophy of 


is not infinite in wisdom, and never was ignorant, tlian that he 
is not infinite in power, because he puts forth new feats, 
creating things which did not exist before; or that he was 
weak, because he did not create all things at once ? Does it 
any more prove that he is not infinitely wise, because he 
thought about and contrived how to make a world best to 
answer his purpose at a certain time, and had not thought of 
it before, than it does that he is not infinite in power because 
he commenced and made that world at a certain time, and did 
not make it “from all eternity,” to use the ambiguous 
phrase ? 

Is it, therefore, any more philosophical that God was once 
ignorant, because he did not have all his thoughts and ideas 
from all eternity, than that he was once weak and not the 
Almighty, because he did not make all things which exist 
from all eternity, or that he commenced and created one thing 
after another? Can we, therefore, come to any other con¬ 
clusion than that succession of thought is as consistent with 
the mind and knowledge of the Deity, as that succession of 
acts of creation are with his Almighty power? What we 
understand by the expressions, infinite wisdom and infinite 
power, are that Deity possesses all the intelligence and power 
to enable him to accomplish every thing which he desires, con¬ 
sistent with the relative powers possessed by other beings of 
his creation. Do we not, therefore, reach this conclusion from 
the concurrence of the Bible, and the philosophy of nature, 
and is, of course, the highest and only standard by which 
mankind are to have any ideas concerning the wisdom and 
power of God, because furnished by himself for the purpose ? 
In close connection with this idea, as presented in the Scrip¬ 
tures, is that God forms purposes and executes them, blow, a 
purpose is an action of the mind, and an action implies a time 
before it began, as well as one after it was finished. To deny 
this is to deny the revelation God has given of this feature of 
his mind, and it also assumes that he acts without a purpose, 
and, therefore, that he made the world without a purpose, 
which is palpably contradicted by the adaptation of means to 


God and the World. 


65 

ends; characteristic of its entire organization, purpose and 
design are indelibly stamped on its whole physical arrange¬ 
ment. The philosophy of this mental process seems to be 
this, and is inseparable from mind, by whomsoever possessed : 
an action implies a prior purpose, a purpose implies prior 
thought and final conclusion, none of which can exist before 
the contemplation of the object to be performed. To make 
any discrimination as to what mind or order of minds this 
operation is only essential is to attempt that for which man is 
utterly disqualified, and not only contradicts one of the best 
known laws of philosophy, but calls in question the revelation 
God has condescended to make of this characteristic of his 
own mind. 

In this connection we propose to refer, very briefly, to the 
sentiments entertained by those known as transcendentalists. 
The advocates of this strange confusion, for it has no more 
system than chaos, its assumptions being characterized by 
vagaries of fancy, equaled only by the contrasts they bear to 
each other on the same subject — this is to be accounted for 
principally from the fact that they dread to go where, if the 
subjects upon which they discourse are treated philosophi¬ 
cally— legitimately lead, namely, into theology and meta¬ 
physics. Now~, if correct conclusions are reached, we are 
obliged to reason from the known to the unknown, and, 
therefore, from the most common operations of nature to the 
most complicated and subtle. It is by an unjustifiable rever¬ 
sion of this principle, that the transcendentalists find regions 
in which speculative fancy may forever roam, and in which 
they demolish every thing tangible and build up nothing, and 
thus bewilder and ruin themselves and those who imbibe their 
sentiments. For instance, what reason can be assigned for 
drawing lines of demarkation between the causes of the 
simplest and most common changes and movement of things, 
and those of the most majestic character in the universe. For 
example, it is one of the best known laws of chemical science, 
that acids, and alkalies decompose each other, resulting in the 
formation of new compounds. Now, the cause of this 
9 


66 


The Philosophy of 


phenomenon is just as mysterious and incomprehensible as the 
cause of the motions of the earth and the solar system, or the 
philosophy of gravitation, and involves the necessity of an 
entity — an a priori — a God who endowed these substances 
with such affinities — and which simply express the operation ; 
but the endowment itself qualifying them to reciprocally 
thus affect and move each other is the work of their creation, 
of which the laws of nature are utterly inadequate ; in fact, 
these laws grow out of the operation of the substances them¬ 
selves, beyond which they have no existence. In this simple 
operation, theology and metaphysics are as clearly exemplified 
as in the rolling of the worlds. It matters not whether the 
philosophy of this pheiiomenon is understood; the unpardon¬ 
able absurdity for which M. Comte contends is, that we have 
no right to reason, or to attempt to reason, a priori or a 
;posteriori , from causes to effects, or effects to causes; and 
were this all of his pretension, it might be tolerated, not, how¬ 
ever, without the violation of the simplest principle of 
philosophy; but his whole effort is to make us believe that 
there is no great First Cause, who gave things their original 
forms, endowing them with chemical affinities, by which their 
motion, and, consequently, their power, to affect each other 
was possible; and, in the absence of such affinities, it is not 
contended that any creation was possible, and, therefore, the 
whole scheme is a failure. So triumphantly has reason and 
true philosophy met the skeptic’s challenge, and demon¬ 
strated the existence of God, that their only hope now is to 
deprive us altogether of the right to reason, especially from 
effects to causes, because it legitimately leads to the existence 
of a great First Cause. Surely, these are not “free thinkers.” 
M. Comte assumes to locate theology and metaphysics in the 
past, and especially that they are superseded by his wonder¬ 
ful discovery of what he denominates, “the positive philos¬ 
ophy,” which consists more in positive assertion than any 
thing else. In fact, there is not the simplest phenomena, as 
the formation or falling of a leaf, but that teaches theology 
and metaphysics, which is the science of God and super- 


God and the World . 


67 


natural things, not of phenomena, the things existing, but 
the philosophy, the reason of their existence. Indeed, it is 
questionable whether it is not a perversion of the term philo s- 
ophy (which signifies the reason of things), to apply it to a 
theory which denies the right to give such reason. M. Comte 
confines Ms philosophy (“ falsely so called”) within the limits 
of phenomena — what may be seen, heard, felt, tasted, and 
smelled,— therefore, must limit all liuman research ; and, as 
the existence of God, taught by theology and metaphysics, 
cannot be subjected to these tests of animal organization, 
therefore there is no God. 

We have also "the biology of Spencer, and the teachings of 
the skeptical theoretic geologists, claiming, substantially, that 
the world and solar system came into existence without a 
God, abstract, beyond, and of prior existence, as their 
author; that by some unknown freak not of nature — and 
while nature was unorganized, inert matter, therefore, philo¬ 
sophically and eternally destitute of all power of motion — 
some living act, by dead matter was put forth, which resulted 
in the creation of the universe. There seems to be no common 
agreement among these authors, except upon two points, 
which is to dispose of the Bible and its Author. The geolo¬ 
gists, dissatisfied with God’s account of creation, have written 
a new book of Genesis. Some of these boldly contend that 
this new revelation cannot be reconciled with the old, obso¬ 
lete one furnished by Moses, and the new one being written in 
the rocks, must be true. Others of this school, feeling 
little more reluctant to appear making such summary disposi¬ 
tion of the Bible, do it as effectually, though with more 
adroitness, in torturing its statements worse than the rack of 
the Papists ever did the martyrs. When any contradiction 
occurs, the geological revelation is always made the standard 
and test book of decision, and our poor Bible must be sub¬ 
mitted to the ordeal of the scissors, and Moses comes out 
such a geologist that, if he were to examine this new edition 
of his book on creation, he would fail to recognize its author¬ 
ship. Let us here introduce a synopsis of this new revelation 


68 


The Philosophy of 


which is substantially as follows: In the beginning the world 
was in a gaseous state, and all the gases fused, or burned, and 
as they fused, there was suddenly among them a great com¬ 
motion, and they concluded to whirl around each other, 
which they did; and the evening and the morning was the 
first day. Query — Why did they not thus fuse and whirl 
mil] ions of ages before, as the same causes, if there were any, 
alway existed, without which they never could have thus 
moved? And the gases said, .“Let us now start off in a 
straight line ; and as we go, we will begin to revolve around 
the sun, and thus will years be established forever; 55 and it 
was so; and the evening and morning was the second day. 
And the gases said, “Let us now turn ourselves obliquely 
toward the sun, and form an ellipse, and thereby give unto 
the world summer and winter, spring and autumn; 55 and it 
was so; and the evening and morning was the third day. 
And the nebulse said, “Inasmuch as we have a little of our¬ 
self left, let us make a moon to give light by night; 55 and the 
earth threw off its nebulous excrescence to make a moon, and 
it was so ; and the evening and the morning was the fourth 
day. And the gases said, “Let the fusing fires be gathered 
into one place, the heart of the earth ; and let a hard crust 
appear; 55 and it was so; and the hard crust was part lava 
and part cast-iron cinder ; and the evening and the morning 
was the fifth day. And the hard crust said, “ Let us bring 
forth vegetation, which shall be for food for animals, when 
they shall be made by the vegetables, or when they shall 
make themselves ; 55 and it was not so, inasmuch as there was 
no soil; and as soil is formed by the decomposition of vege¬ 
tables, and inasmuch, also, as there had not, as yet, been a 
single vegetable to decompose, therefore said these gods, 
“We are inadequate to this task ; this is the finger of God ; 55 
and the evening and the morning was the sixth day. And the 
laws of nature said, “Let us make all the lower and higher 
animals first, as an experiment, so that we shall be able to 
make man at their head; the man not to be made after our 
kind or image, for we.have none; and not equal but vastly 


God and the World. 


69 


superior to ourselves ; lie must have mind, volition and intelli¬ 
gence, which we have not. We are aware men will be disposed 
to question our ability for such achievement, yet there will be 
some such prodigies of credulity, that all objections will be put 
to silence by their presumptuous declarations. It will be 
taken for granted that men who can tell the age of a rock 
must surely understand the science well enough not to be 
mistaken in regard to such a matter; and thus will many 
believe that we, the laws of nature, and not God, made them, 
or that we are the gods of creation. We must also admit that 
if we, poor, simple, unknowing abstractions, can make man, 
so infinitely superior to ourselves, man, acting on the same 
principle, can make gods with capacities equally superior to 
his own, and as incomprehensible to himself, as those he 
possesses are to the lowest forms of vegetables or insect life, 
and which are themselves just as superior to the abstract laws 
which produced them. It had also been supposed that the 
being or power that made another was superior to the thing 
made; but this is a mistake, the lesser makes the greater. 
And thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the 
hosts of them; and just as the three-headed creator, the 
nebulae, the gases and the laws of nature, was about entering 
into rest from his labors, lo! and behold! all flesh died 
which were upon the whole face of the hard crusted cinder, 
for the want of food, as there was no soil to produce vegeta¬ 
tion, and no vegetation to form soil; so the triple-headed 
creator, being unable to meet this unlooked-for emergency, 
abandoned the work of creation. 

Here we have the legitimate sequence of this hypothesis of 
creation. This subject involves-too great and momentous con¬ 
sequences to be admitted upon mere abstract reasoning, or 
even plausible arguments, and as its propositions come within 
the scope of chemical experiment, than which nothing is more 
susceptible of demonstration, in vindication of the theory 
just let its advocates furnish us with a miniature solar system 
in motion, created on their hypothesis, and we will be satisfied. 
They may collect a sufficient quantity of the gases, of which 


70 


The Philosophy of 


the world and solar system are composed, and put them 
together, so that they will fuse, and let us see whether, by the 
fusion, any such result as this new Genesis proposes will fol¬ 
low. They will have great advantage over that possessed by 
the unintelligent gases at the creation, which had no one to 
assist them in coming together. A vacuum may be made as 
perfect as that which existed in space at creation, before the 
atmosphere was made. Let it be a glass house, so that the 
result of the experiment may be seen. Let the gases, in the 
exact proportion in which they enter into the composition of 
the earth, air and solar system, be pumped into the glass house, 
after the air has been exhausted, so that instantaneous fusion 
will take place — if fusion can take place without oxygen — 
and when the chemical operation has subsided, we will see if 
the little world appears and is in motion. The sun in the 
center, the first and secondary planets revolving from east to 
west, each in its respective orbit, and together performing all 
the phases of the motions manifested in the solar system itself. 
This, by the way, would be a very easy method of inventing 
perpetual motion ; nothing necessary only to collect and burn 
up a certain quantity of gases, upon well-known conditions. 
We want no jugglery, no necromancy, as false as the reason¬ 
ing of these geologists, but let us have an honest experiment, 
demonstrating the theory, and we will at once concede its 
truthfulness, and do reverence to its discoverers. We do not 
wish to be understood as including all the theological geolo¬ 
gists as being skeptical, but we think there are very few of 
them who are not more disposed to explain the Bible to spit 
the theory, than the theory to explain the Bible ; and that, too, 
without stopping to demand of geology facts which admit of 
no other solution or construction, and which cannot be har¬ 
monized with the plain account of creation contained in the 
Bible, without doing violence to its teachings. £ c Science, J ’ says 
Agassiz, ‘ 6 has suffered more from a want of facts upon which to 
base its theories, than from all other causes,” and the tempta¬ 
tion to make facts is almost irresistible. We do not question 
the truth that geology has such a system of facts, if kept 


God and the World. 


71 


within the legitimate sphere of its teachings, but when it 
undertakes to teach chronology, it sadly oversteps that sphere, 
and, therefore, necessarily fails ; many of the facts it presents 
for this purpose, when scientifically and philosophically scru¬ 
tinized, give no warrant for the conclusions attempted to be 
drawn from them. 

Geology is the science which treats of the constitution of the 
globe, comprehending the minerals and aggregate substances 
composing the earth, the relations which the several masses 
bear to each other, their formation, structure, position, and 
causes of physical features; but the skeptical have dragged 
into it the idea, not only that it teaches chronology, but one 
which gives the world an age in palpable conflict with that 
given by inspiration. What we mean is, that it furnishes no 
such facts as that by which the age of a tree is determined, 
each season infallibly producing a single grain, and but one, 
so that it matters not how great its dimensions, or fine its 
grains, cut it down, and count the number from the, center to 
the circumference, and you have the number of its years. For 
instance, they give us the fact of the wearing away of the rock 
by the Niagara falls, but here they fail to make allowance for 
the fact that the rock which has thus worn away lies in an 
inclination, growing thinner from the base of the falls, till 
it reaches the surface down the river, where the fall first began; 
here it had but a thin edge, over which the water poured, 
which grew thicker, until the mass became, as now, reaching 
the base of the falls. Now, can any thing be more obvious 
than the fact that this thin edge of rock, over which the waters 
at first precipitated, wore away, perhaps, more in one year 
than now in five hundred, and so, of course, would diminish 
as the rock grew thicker. They fail, also, to take into the 
calculation another hypothetic theory of geology, which is, 
that this rock was once a soft, yielding substance, and conse¬ 
quently would wear away more in a year, than as rock in ten 
thousand. Hence, we see the chimerical grounds of the cal¬ 
culation in regard to the time required to wear away the whole 
distance from this thin crust, where the falls commenced, to 


72 


The Philosophy of 


where they now are, the data being fonnded upon the sup¬ 
position that it took the same length of time to wear away 
every inch of this surface rock, as it does now to wear away 
one inch; and it must also be remembered, that this is one of 
the most important facts upon which geologists base the cal¬ 
culation of the extreme age of the world, and which is older 
than that furnished by its maker. 

The fact is, the philosophy of the interdependence of created 
things, and their reciprocal relations, demonstrate the world, 
and all it contains, to have been created perfect at first, and, 
therefore, sudden, and some of its most prominent existences 
admitting only of one season, and necessitating but six literal 
days; for example, the sun’s light, just as perfect as now, 
was essential to sustain and mature vegetable life, therefore, 
the sun was created before vegetables existed; this is also 
true of animals and insects, and, therefore, the sun, with its 
first and secondary planets, essential to the balance of the 
solar system, reciprocally perpetuating their various orbits 
and motions, were created not only perfect at first, but sud¬ 
denly, we mean at once, for it is as absurd to suppose other¬ 
wise as to suppose two weights poised in a balance would 
remain thus after one was removed, or by adding a third to 
the number. In confirmation of this, it is found that all the 
fossil remains of insects and animals, in the strata composing 
the surface of our globe, are furnished with eyes, a perfectly 
superfluous appendage, on the supposition that they existed 
before light. Water also must have been created perfect 
before the inhabitants it contains existed, because they could 
not have existed in a thick, chaotic, inorganic mass, in which 
their finny instruments of locomotion would have been use¬ 
less ; its stagnancy also would have rendered the life of these 
impossible. Animal and vegetable life, also, must have been 
simultaneous, because of the absorption by each of the car¬ 
bon and oxygen of the air, thereby preserving its balance, the 
vegetables absorbing its carbon and animals its oxygen. 
Strike out of existence all vegetables, and all animals would 
become extinct, because the air would become so highly 


God and the World. 


73 


charged with carbon that its inhalation would be deadly, and 
so, on the other hand, destroy all the animals and insects, 
vegetation would become so highly oxydized, thereby poison¬ 
ous to animal life. The philosophy of this great organic 
truth, therefore, is, that the air, with its relative constituents 
of carbon and oxygen, must have been created as perfect as it 
now is, before vegetables or animals could have existed, and 
these two great classifications of existence constitute the 
natural law by which the balance of the air is preserved. It 
is conceivable that the air, after having been created as it is, 
might have been preserved without suffering any material dis¬ 
organization, as long as there was no created substance which 
absorbed any of its constituent gases, and resisted the use of 
all others ; but, let vegetables have a few years the start, and 
they would necessarily so derange the atmosphere that, though 
animals were then created, they would immediately become 
extinct by its inhalation; the conclusion, therefore, to which 
this argument leads is, that the creation of vegetables and 
animals, and the atmosphere, was not only perfect at first, but 
was simultaneous. This argument also disposes of the theory 
of geologists regarding the “ carboniferous period,” when 
there was no oxygen, and in which vegetables alone existed ; 
or at least before animals existed, and we cannot but advert 
to another palpable inconsistency in the interpretation of its 
advocates, respecting the six days of creation, making them 
six indefinite periods. The theory of this carboniferous 
period is that it was one of those represented by the six days 
Moses gives covering the work of creation, and that it was one 
before there was any oxygen in existence. 

If we turn to the Mosaic account, we find that on the first 
day, or period, light was created; and, as light cannot exist 
without oxygen for its support, therefore oxygen existed from 
the commencement of the first period ; in fact, its production 
was the very first act of creative skill and energy. This 
account, therefore, harmonizes with the philosophic necessities 
of the case, and as philosophically exposes the erroneous 
views of the geologists, and, consequently, furnishes the 
10 


74 


The Philosophy of 


world with the truth. We cannot here, or in this work, stop 
to give an extensive examination of this fictitious theory, 
which would require a large volume of itself. In conclusion, 
we would simply remark, that the great error of the theory 
consists in the supposition and the endeavor to make it appear 
that the world was originally created by the workings of the 
natural laws which now form and change its substances, 
while there is not exemplified in all nature the least indication 
of its creation by any such operation. It assumes these laws 
to be abstractions, instead of inherent principles, growing out 
of the very constitution of the things themselves, endowed 
with chemical properties, giving them the power of affinity or 
aversion, attraction or repulsion, adherence or separation. 
This peculiar endowment is the creation of these substances, 
and interdependently gives them reciprocal relations accord¬ 
ing to their own inherent organism, but know nothing what¬ 
ever of the starting point of their existence or creation, namely, 
this endowment; and, as we have seen, this interdependence 
and relationship renders a perfect and simultaneous creation a 
necessity. It was as indispensable to the existence of the 
simplest vegetable or insect that it should have been sur¬ 
rounded with all those conditions of life, constituting the 
elements of its being in all their degrees of perfection, as that 
the first man should have been thus situated. He is no more 
depending upon the atmosphere, water, soil, vegetable and 
animal life, as it now exists — in short, a world in a perfect 
state, or at least one which meets all the vital necessities of 
his being—than is the simplest vegetable or animal in exist¬ 
ence. Therefore, the world and all it contains was not made 
by any slow, progressive operation, developing new features 
of perfection, but at once, and perfect; and the universal 
voice of nature, whether written in science, philosophy or reve¬ 
lation, joins in ascribing it to the work of a single mind, 
infinitely intelligent, almighty in power, abstract and beyond 
itself. 

Let the idea be conceded that the world was created perfect 
at first, at least as much so as it ever has been, and the conclu- 


God and the World . 


75 


sion is that it bore the marks of age, though but created yes¬ 
terday. A tree was made a tree, and not a seed to produce 
one. The man was made such, and not an infant to become 
one. A strata of rock was compressed in a moment for a 
purpose, and not by the slow processes which now forms and 
dissolves it. 

That the coal beds were formed by the decomposition of 
vegetables, and which are still in process of formation, is 
another equal absurdity; but all we can stop here to say in 
regard to it is, that its defenders should be required to pro¬ 
duce a piece of vegetable matter passing through the transi¬ 
tion from wood to coal. Just let them furnish us with a lump 
which is clearly part wood and part coal, and we will admit 
the truth of the theory. It is easy to produce a piece of coal 
which is part slate-rock and'part coal, which seems to demon¬ 
strate the position that all the coal was either once slate-rock 
or all coal, and, surely, slate-rock was never vegetation. It is 
not enough to produce that which resembles a leaf, plant or 
tree, in shape, for these are often found in crystals and vege¬ 
tables, which not only resemble plants but animals, and even 
human beings. In the absence of such facts, can we yield 
the correctness of such theories, at such an enormous expense 
of sapping the very foundations of revealed truth ? The fact is, 
God made the coal beds and oil fountains at the creation of 
the world — some of the latter are found six hundred feet 
down through solid rock, and where no vegetable could ever 
have been deposited—and hid there thus deep enough, with 
their inflammable gases, so that they would not take lire and 
burn up, leaving the race without fuel or oil; as the wood for 
fuel and the whale for oil became exhausted by £he increased 
consumption of the race, coal and oil in abundance came to 
light when thus rendered necessary. These mines were dis¬ 
covered- in time to meet the demands of the race, and will be 
abundant until this temporary world has answered its pur¬ 
pose, and the immortal and eternal introduced. 

The geological theory, therefore, that its facts teach the age 
of the world at all, and much less that they give it a greater 


76 


The Philosophy of 


age than that of revelation, is only obtained by superficial 
views, and we can come to no other conclusion, than that it 
had its origin in a skeptical disposition to destroy the confi¬ 
dence and faith of man in the divine authorship of the sacred 
scriptures, and, like all other similar attempts, has and must 
forever fail. 


God and the World. 


t < 


CHAPTER Y. 

FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD. 

We come now to consider tlie object for wliicli the world 
was created, in regard to which, we infer, that there was a 
time when the Deity had no design or purpose, and, conse¬ 
quently, thought or knowledge of the world or its inhabitants. 
In the divine contemplation, the creation of a world is sug¬ 
gested to his mind. He thinks and reasons about the mighty 
project. Shall it be inhabited ? What shall be the nature of its 
inhabitants? He had before this created the angels, each, 
like Adam, directly by His own hand, and as man was made 
“a little lower than the angels,” experiment was unnecessary 
in order to make him. It is reasonable to suppose that 
the greatest object in the mind of Deity was to make the 
world and its inhabitants permanent and eternal, holy sub¬ 
jects of righteous government. Now, He sees that if He 
makes man so high in the scale of being as to be capable of 
obedience, he will necessarily be of disobedience, the one 
implying the other. He also sees that the representatives of 
the race will prove disobedient, and thereby involve their 
posterity in a condition of ruin and death. It seems now that 
either of three things can be done with mankind thus fallen : 
resolve them back into the elements out of which they were 
made ; let them live and propagate their species as an aban¬ 
doned race, until they become extinct by their own degeneracy ; 
or, thirdly, let them live, and provide a plan to meet the emer¬ 
gency, vindicate the honor of the law which had been dis¬ 
honored, and bring out of the universal ruin the same grand 
race of obedient and righteous subjects, which would have 
existed had man never fallen; but which now involved the 
necessity of the re-creation of the world and the resurrection 


78 


The Philosophy of 


of these righteous dead over whom death had held empire for 
six thousand years. 

Thus God submits to this short reign of sin and death in 
order to accomplish his grand purpose. In Paul’s letter to 
the Romans we have a vivid presentation of this subject, and 
which contains the authority for the views here intimated, 
thus: “And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint 
heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we 
may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the suffer¬ 
ings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with 
the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest 
expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of 
the sons of God, for the creature was made subject to vanity, 
not willingly, but by reason of Him who had subjected the 
same in hope, because the creature itself shall also be deliv¬ 
ered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty 
of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation 
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now ; and not 
only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of 
the spirit; even we, ourselves, groan within ourselves, waiting 
for the adoption ; to-wit, the redemption of our body.” 

In the present world, deranged by sin, we here see that those 
loyal subjects for the new creation sympathetically groan with 
it, while it labors under the curse, waiting for its proihised 
deliverance, which includes the redemption of the body from 
the grave, they have the spirit of adoption now ; but, then, 
shall they have the adoption itself, which follows the resur¬ 
rection of the dead (see Adoption and Redemption). 

The present world is to continue until the required number 
of subjects is obtained for the world to come, which follows 
the conflagration of this. The universal, physical and moral 
derangement of the world can only be accounted for upon the 
principle introduced above, that God, as the only alternative, 
reluctantly thus subjected it, and is his apology for its per¬ 
mission to exist, and continue to labor under the terrible reign 
of sin, suffering and death. The whole six thousand years 
of which, however, are not to be compared with the revelation 


God and the World. 


79 


of the glory, manifesting all the sons of God endowed with 
immortality and eternal life. A misapprehension of this grand 
truth, and purpose of God with the world, confounds, alike, 
philosophy and theology, involving man and his relations with 
the world he inhabits, as well as the derangement of the world 
itself, in profound and incomprehensible mystery ; but, correct 
views here, makes all reasonable, philosophic and scriptural. 
From these considerations, it is evident that the Creator is 
only interested in the present world, as it stands related to 
the prosecution of His great purpose, in obtaining subjects for 
His new, perfect and eternal empire, which is to rise, phcenix- 
like, in immortal beauty and grandeur, from the ashes of the 
present sin-cursed world, doomed to fire and flame. Nations 
and national events are of importance only as they stand 
identified with the establishment, prosperity, or destruction 
of His church, an institution which alone possesses and com¬ 
prehends those elements and principles of Divine conception, 
provided for the development and preparation of inhabit¬ 
ants for the immortal world, and which, in a word, consists in 
their individual and heartfelt acceptation of Christ’s reign over 
them. We understand that this grand end will be accom¬ 
plished exactly as it appeared to the mind of the Deity before 
He commenced the creation — to him there will be no absolute 
disappointment. He had a perfect knowledge from the time 
He drew the plan of the world, and determined to make it 
after that plan, of every man’s history, to whom the light of 
the Gospel would come. He saw who would accept its terms, 
and thereby obtain an heirship to the eternal inheritance, and 
also who would reject them finally, and thereby fail to answer 
the design of their being ; such an end is that to which God 
reluctantly made them subject, namely, “vanity;” it was 
vain that such were made at all. 

We say that from this time God had the entire details of this 
whole work vividly before His mind, and, therefore, he had a 
perfect knowledge of it, which was the result of what He thus 
foresaw, looking down through the history of the race; read 
it just as we read the present and past; His vast mind was fully 


80 


The Philosophy of 


capable of taking into the account all the circumstances and 
conditions which would lead to the development of events, 
and hence could obtain a perfect knowledge of results mani¬ 
fested in the formation of the character of each member of the 
human race, what would be the inherited proclivities of each, 
what the associations surrounding them in life, whether favor¬ 
able or otherwise to Christianity, what would be the prepon¬ 
derating motives which would fix the final destiny of each, 
whether they would leave the world with a submissive nature 
and will, or otherwise, to the requisitions and government of 
God. Plato was right in regard to the idea that God knew, 
because He foresaw, how the world would look before He made 
it, just as an architect foreknows, because he foresees, how a 
mansion will appear, when he determines on the model after 
which it is to be made. This knowledge, thus obtained, quali¬ 
fied the Deity to “ declare the end from the beginning,” as 
He has done by the mouth of all the holy prophets. It is 
evident that, as God cast His omniscient vision down through 
the movements of nations, that His interest would circle 
around those more immediately connected with His church, 
and that the reciprocal events, growing out of such relations, 
would constitute the especial subjects of prophecy ; these 
events, given to man, would be God’s history of the world, in 
advance, and, in this work, we shall see that such is indeed 
the Scriptures of the prophets. 

From this consideration, it is also evident that, in the march 
of human events, other nations would rise and fall, but so dis¬ 
connected or territorially isolated from Christianity, such, for 
instance, as the Chinese Empire had for ages been, that,.in 
the estimation of God, they would be of no especial account, 
not being Christians, and, from the condition of things, not 
being possible to make them such, it was no interest for Him 
to have read their character in detail, and, not doing this, He 
would know nothing about it; not that God was unable to 
know, but seeing at a glance that the national events which 
give rise to national existence, would be such as to exclude 
Christianity for centuries from the people, there was no 


God and the World. 


81 


inducement for Him to look into the details of individual 
heathen character. These might, therefore, advance in 
human depravity beyond what God had foreknown, because 
beyond what He had foreseen, one of which depends upon the 
other ; in fact what any being knows he first foresees, we mean 
with the eye of his mind, and, therefore, no being, not even 
God, can foresee or foreknow any event, or occurrence, that 
does not, or will not exist; and is it not self-evident that millions 
of events might occur, similar to those which do, but which 
never did or will? That man may become more corrupt, 
depraved and hopelessly allied with sin, beyond what God 
had seen or known, is evident, also, from what he himself says 
concerning it, Gen. vi., 5, 6: “And God looked down from 
Heaven upon the children of men, and God saw that the wicked¬ 
ness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination 
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, and it 
repented the Lord that He had made man upon the earth, and 
it grieved him at His heart. And the Lord said : ‘ I will 
destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth,’ ” 
which was done by the flood, and the race commenced anew. 
With the questions of the moral development of human society, 
the march of civilization, human progress, spread of worldly 
knowledge and refinement, the Lord of the world has no 
especial interest, and, indeed, none at all, only as they are 
conducive to the spread of the Gospel, and it is the temptation 
of mankind to consider these eliminations of the Gospel, for 
they are nothing more, as of the utmost importance, indeed, 
superseding the Gospel itself, making the civilized and moralists 
mere formalists in religion, and, therefore, no Christians at all, 
for God accepts nothing but the heart. His eternal vigilance, 
and earnest determination to accomplish the grand purpose 
foreshadowed in the Scriptures of truth, absorb His attention 
and interest in regard to the world. Is the man a Christian ? 
or can he be made one? are the all-important questions. 
Whatever there is in the world subservient to this end, is of 
God ; every thing else is not. Men having no interest, or tak¬ 
ing none, in this question, come into the world, according to 
11 


82 


The Philosophy of 


the necessary propagation of the human species, and pass out 
of it, and, as far as the interest and design of God is concerned, 
might as well, and much better for themselves, never been 
born, like the heathen they were, without God, or his law in 
the world, and so they perished. “He that is without law 
shall perish without law.” 


God and the World. 


83 


CHAPTER VI. 

THE MANNER IN WHICH THE PROPHECIES WERE GIVEN. 

We are now prepared to consider the prophetic history of 
the present and future world, the temporary and the eternal. 
We set out with the proposition, that there are to be four 
universal empires, or monarchies, which in the march of 
human events succeed each other in the following order: first, 
the Chaldean ; second, the Medo-Persian ; third, the Grecian, 
and, fourth, the Roman, the last of which is to be succeeded 
by the establishment of the Kingdom of God, “under the 
whole heaven.” This is to be the new heavens and the new 
earth, the eternal and immortal inheritance of the glorified 
saints. The Bible contemplates only time and eternity. Time 
measured by the introduction of sin and its consequent 
derangement, its eternal extermination by the triumphs of 
Jesus, at which His endless reign commences and runs on 
with the parallels of duration. In comparison with eternity, 
time is so short that but little is said in regard to the inter¬ 
mediate state. It is around the grand and distinguishing 
truth of the resurrection and the re-creation of the world that 
the hope of the saints of all ages circle, and it is this alone 
which gives the doctrines of revelation their force and import¬ 
ance. No man can properly appreciate any great truth of 
inspiration if he entertains erroneous views in regard to this 
great end ; and especially to such are the prophecies and book 
of revelation shrouded in impenetrable darkness. It is like the 
confusion which would exist in the mind of an artist, were he 
to be engaged in the collection of materials adapted to the 
erection of a beautiful mansion without having any such con¬ 
ception or object in view. 

Before, however, we enter immediately on the investigation 


84 


The Philosophy of 


of the prophecies which unfold these great subjects, it is 
important that we should have a clear idea as to the manner 
in which they were given, and, of course, this can only be 
gathered from the sacred writings themselves. 2 Tim. iii, 16, 
17: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is 
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruc¬ 
tion in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, 
thoroughly furnished unto all good works. For the scrip¬ 
ture came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men 
of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” Here 
we see that the men whom God employed to write the scrip¬ 
tures had no will of their own in regard to what they wrote ; 
they were in the hand of God just as the pen is in ours, moving 
as the mind dictates, and having no more knowledge of what 
they wrote than the pen in our hand has of what we write. 
This is more evident from another passage : 1 Peter ix, 13 — 
“Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your 
souls, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and 
searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should 
come unto you? searching what time, or what manner of 
time, the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when 
it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory 
that should follow, unto whom it was revealed, that not unto 
themselves , but unto us, they did minister the things which are 
now reported unto you, by them that have preached the 
gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down from 
heaven ; which things the angels desire to look into. Where¬ 
fore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the 
end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revela¬ 
tion of Jesus Christ.” 

It is not only evident from this that the sacred writers them¬ 
selves did not understand what they wrote, and that it was 
not designed they should, because not applying to the time 
in which they lived, but reached to particular generations 
through all time, and especially centered around the con¬ 
summation of all things. That they had no will in regard to 
what they wrote or spake is forcibly illustrated in - the case 


God and the World. 


85 


of Balak, tlie king of Moab, who hired the prophet Balaam 
to curse the children of Israel, and who, as we are told, 
“loved the wages of unrighteousness,” and, therefore, desired 
to curse Israel, but instead of which God put words of bless¬ 
edness into his mouth. Num. ii, 3.—“And the Lord put a 
word into Balaam’s mouth, and said, return unto Balak and 
thus shalt thou speak, and he took up his parable and said : 
Behold, the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out 
of the mountains of the east, saying, come curse me Jacob, 
and come defy Israel. How shall I curse whom God hath not 
cursed ? or how shall I defy wdiom the Lord hath not defied ? 
For from the tops of the rocks I see him, and from the hills 
I behold him ; lo, the people shall dwell alone and shall not 
be reckoned among the nations. Who can count the dust of 
Jacob? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my 
last end be like his. And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he 
saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes, and 
the spirit of God came upon him, and he took up his parable 
and said: Balaam, the son of Beor, hath said, and the man 
whose eyes are open hath said, which heard the words of 
God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a 
trance, but having his eyes open. How goodly are thy tents, 
0 Jacob, and thy tabernacles, 0 Israel. He couched, he lay 
down as a lion and as a great lion, who shall stir him up ? 
Blessed be he that blesseth thee, and cursed be he that curseth 
thee. I shall see him, but not now ; I shall behold him, but 
not nigh. There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter 
shall rise out of Israel and shall smite the corners of Moab, 
and destroy all the children of Shith. Out of Jacob shall 
come he that shall have dominion, and he took up his parable 
and said, alas ! who shall live when God doth this?” Who 
this is that shall thus sway the scepter of empire, the star 
that shall rise out of Israel, and upon which the vision of the 
prophet was fixed, and also the period of its fulfillment, is 
shown by the revelator, who after the resurrection -hears 
the following exclamation: “I, Jesus, have sent mine angel 
to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the 


8b 


The Philosophy of 


root and the offspring of David, and the bright and the morn¬ 
ing star.” Thus were men thrown into holy vision, or trance, 
or sleep, or in the spirit, and became as dead men, as it is 
variously expressed, in which state they were made to see 
future events as God saw them, and moved by him to write 
what they saw, the scriptures did originate. These words of 
God are, therefore, as infallible as their author. “ Heaven 
and earth may pass away, but not one jot or tittle of these 
shall ever pass till all be fulfilled.” And mark, it is the 
words themselves which the vigilance of God is to keep from 
passing away, either by not being fulfilled, or by being cor¬ 
rupted by designed false translations of sectarianism. Men 
may make such books called Bibles, but they so carry with 
them the frown and curse of God, which must, as it always 
has done, prevent them from coming into general use. He 
that adds to, or takes from, these words , God will take his part 
out of the holy city and punish him with the written plagues. 

In accordance, therefore, with the solemn injunction, 
“ Search the Scriptures,” we enter on the momentous and 
difficult task of giving what we conceive to be the meaning of 
the prophecies interpreted by themselves, and which is the 
result of more than thirty years of independent and impartial 
study. In the prosecution of which we propose to introduce 
no human author as authority, assuming the author of the 
lively oracles to be an intelligent teacher, and that, therefore, 
unless he explains his own words, figures, symbols and meta¬ 
phors, somewhere in his work, they must forever remain 
inexplicable, which supposition, however, cannot be har¬ 
monized with the idea that the Scriptures are a “revelation” 
from God to man, and, therefore, that man knows nothing of 
his origin and destiny. We commence by the introduction of 
the four universal kingdoms, presented in imagery in a dream 
of Nebuchadnezzar, the Chaldean King, and interpreted by 
the prophet Daniel, recorded in the second chapter of his 
prophecy: “In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar 
dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his 
sleep brake from him ; then the king commanded to call the 


God and the World . 


87 


magicians, astrologers, sorcerers and Chaldeans to show the 
king his dream. So they came in and stood before the king, 
and the king said unto them : I have dreamed a dream, and my 
spirit w^as troubled to know the dream. Then speak the 
Chaldeans to the king in Syriac. O, king, live forever ; tell 
thy servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation. 
The king answered and said, the thing is gone from me ; if ye 
will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpreta¬ 
tion thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces ; but, if ye will show the 
dream, and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me 
gifts and rewards, and great honor; wherefore show me the 
dream and the interpretation. They answered again, and 
said, let the king tell thy servants the dream, and we will 
show the interpretation thereof. The king answered and said, 
I know of certainty that ye would gain the time, because ye 
see the thing is gone from me ; but if ye will not make known 
unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you; for ye 
have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me 
till the time be changed ; therefore, tell me the dream and the 
interpretation thereof. 

“ The Chaldeans answered, and said, there is not a man upon 
earth that can show the king’s matter ; therefore, there is no 
king, lord, or ruler, that asked such things of any magician, 
astrologer or Chaldean, and it is a rare thing that the king 
requires, and there is none other that can show it before the 
king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. For 
this cause the king was very angry and furious, and com¬ 
manded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. And the 
decree went forth that the wise men should be slain, and they 
sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain. Then Daniel 
answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch, the captain of 
the king’s guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men 
of Babylon. Why is the decree so hasty from the king? 
Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel; then Daniel 
went in and desired of the king that he would give him time, 
and he would show the king the interpretation. Then Daniel 
went to his house and made the thing known to Hananiah, 


88 


The Philosophy of 


Michael and Azariah, his companions, that they would desire 
mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret, that 
Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of 
the wise men of Babylon; then was the secret revealed unto 
Daniel in a night vision ; then Daniel blessed the God of 
heaven. Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of 
God forever and ever ; for wisdom and might are His, and he 
changeth the times and the seasons ; He removeth kings and 
setteth up kings ; He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowl¬ 
edge to them that know understanding. He revealeth the deep 
and secret things; He knoweth what is in the darkness, and 
the light dwelleth with Him ; I thank thee and praise thee, O 
thou God of my fathers, who hath given me wisdom and 
might, and hast made known unto me what we desired of 
thee, for thou hast now made known unto us the king’s mat¬ 
ter. Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, and said destroy 
not the wise men of Babylon; bring me in before the king, 
and I will show unto the king the interpretation. Then Arioch 
brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto 
him: I have found a man of the captives of Judah that will 
make known unto the king the interpretation. The king 
answered, and said to Daniel, art thou able to make known 
unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation 
thereof? Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and 
said, the secret which the king hath demanded, cannot the 
wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, 
show unto the king ? But there is a God in heaven that 
revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king, Nebuchad¬ 
nezzar, what shall be in the latter day. Thy dream, and the 
visions of thy head upon the bed, are these: As for thee, O 
king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what 
should come to pass hereafter ; and he that revealeth the 
secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass; but, as 
for me, this secret is not revealed for any wisdom that I have 
more than any living, but that thou mightest know the 
thoughts of thy heart. Thou, O king, sawest and behold a 
great image. This great image, whose brightness was excel- 


God and the World. 


89 


lent, stood before tliee, and tlie form thereof was terrible. 
This image’s head was of tine gold, his breast and his arms of 
silver, his belly and his sides of brass, his legs of iron, his 
feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a 
stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon 
the feet that were of iron and of clay, and brake them to 
pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and 
the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff 
of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them 
away, that no place was found for them; and the stone that 
smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole 
earth. This is the dream, and we will tell the interpretation 
thereof before the king. Thou, O king, art a king of kings ; 
for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, 
strength and glory, and wheresoever the children of men dwell, 
the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the heaven, hath he 
given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. 
Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise 
another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom 
of brass, which shall hear rule over all the earth. And the 
fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron ; forasmuch as iron 
breaketh in pieces, and subdueth all things, and as iron that 
breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. 

“ And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potter’s 
clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but 
there shall be in it the strength of iron, forasmuch as thou 
sawest the iron mixed with miry clay, and as the toes of the 
feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall 
be partly strong and partly broken; and, whereas, thou 
sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle them¬ 
selves with the seed of men ; but they shall not cleave one to 
another, even as iron is not mixed with miry clay. And in 
the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a 
kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom 
shall not be left to other people, but it shall brake in pieces 
and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. 
Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the 
12 


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mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces, the iron, 
the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, the great God 
hath made known to the king what shall come to pass here¬ 
after, and the dream is certain and the intepretation thereof 
sure.” 

It must be seen that in this imaginary conception of the 
great God, we have the symbolization of the four universal 
kingdoms which succeed each other, holding the dominion of 
the world from the days of this dream until its end; and the 
fifth, symbolized by the stone, is the kingdom of God, or of 
heaven, and occupies the same territory, under the whole 
heaven , swaying the same universal scepter as those which it 
supersedes. As there was no power in each of these suc¬ 
cessively to resist the superior power of that which succeeded, 
so there will be none among the nations of the earth, repre¬ 
sented by the feet and toes of the image, to stand against the 
onset of the kingdom of God ; the stone that smote the image 
upon the feet, dashing all the wicked nations of the earth in 
pieces, like the vessels of a potter, and the stone became a 
great mountain (or kingdom) and filled the whole earth. 

Christ, the second Adam, here takes the dominion of the 
earth, restored again to its Eden state, which the first Adam 
had and lost. Let us introduce a few passages to prove this: 
Gen. i, 28—“So God created He him; male and female 
created He them ; and God blessed them, and God said unto 
them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and 
subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and 
over the fowls of the air, and over every living thing that 
moveth upon the earth.” Here was delegated to Adam, from 
the highest authority, the most absolute and universal 
dominion of the earth ever held by man. Micah, iv, 7—“And 
I will make her that halteth” (the church to be immortalized) 
“a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation; 
and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion” (the 
stone became a great mountain and filled the whole earth), 
“from henceforth, even forever. And thou, O tower of the 
flock, the stronghold of the Daughter of Zion” (Christ,) 


God and the World. 


91 


“ unto thee shall it come , even the first dominion ; the kingdom 
shall come to the Daughter of Jerusalem.” The first Adam 
had the first dominion of the earth ; Jesus, the second Adam, 
shall take it and it will be everlasting. Hum. xxiv, 19 — 
“ Out of Jacob shall come Him that shall have dominion” 
Zach. ix, 9, 10—“ Rejoice greatly, 0 Daughter of Zion! 
shout! O Daughter of Jerusalem! behold, thy king cometh 
unto thee ! He is just, and having salvation ; lowly and riding 
upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. And His 
dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the rivers even to 
the ends of the earth.” Dan. vii, 13—“And I saw in the 
night visions ; and behold, one like the Son of Man came 
with the clouds of heaven, and there was given Him dominion 
and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and 
languages, should serve Him ; His dominion is an everlasting 
dominion, which shall not pass away, and His king¬ 
dom that which shall not be destroyed.’ Rev. v, 7 —“And 
they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the 
book, and to open the seven seals thereof; for Thou wast 
slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every 
kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made 
us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the 
earth” Matt, xxv, 31, 34— “When the Son of man shall 
come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then 
shall He sit upon the throne of His glory; and before Him 
shall be gathered all nations; and He shall separate them one 
from another, and He shall set the sheep on his right hand 
and the goats on the left. Then shall the king say unto them 
on His right hand, come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” 
That held by Adam. As we intend to vindicate the positions 
assumed in relation to the four universal kingdoms by scrip¬ 
ture testimony exclusively, therefore whatever of profane 
history is introduced is not to be considered authority, but 
simply corroborative, to enable those not familiar with his¬ 
tory, as they behold the events in prediction, and their 
historic development, to exclaim with the confidence of Peter 


92 


The Philosophy of 


when lie saw tlie effects of the gift of tlie Holy Ghost, “ This 
is that which was spolcen of by the prophet Joel.” In the 
divine interpretation of this wonderful dream, we have the 
declaration made to the Chaldean king, who was the first man 
that had held universal dominion, after it had been lost by 
Adam. “ Thou art this head of gold.” It is true that 
Egypt had the power before this period by which she might 
have become a universal kingdom ; she carried her conquests 
everywhere, so that there was no nation which she did not 
vanquish, yet the history of her military exploits show that 
she did not even attempt to establish universal dominion, but 
seemed satisfied with the simple defeat of her enemies, with¬ 
out even attempting to add them to her dominions, as integral 
parts of her empire. It is also true, according to Virgil's 
account of the destruction of Troy and the capture and death 
of Priam and his son by Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, that 
that monarch held immense and extensive dominion, but not 
universal, and when, by the treachery of a woman, the 
invading army gained an entrance within the walls, in one 
night Troy fell, and with it the whole empire became an easy 
prey to the Greeks. 

“ Tlius Priam fell, and shared one common fate 
With Troy in afelies, and his ruined state. 

He who the scepter of all Asia swayed. 

Whom monarclxs as domestic slaves obeyed,— 

On the bleak shore now lies the abandoned king-, 

A headless carcass, and a nameless thing.” 

Now, as we have seen that the Chaldean, or Babylonian king¬ 
dom, symbolized by the image’s head of gold, was the first 
that was universal, the question arises, what kingdom con¬ 
quered the Chaldean and held the dominion of the world? 
The expression, “After thee shall arise another kingdom 
inferior to thee,” symbolized by the breast and two arms of 
the image, signifies that it was not to have such consolidated 
power, which had its fulfillment in being divided between the 
Medes and Persians. We quote from the fifth chapter, and 


God and the World. 


93 


it is necessary to introduce a considerable portion of it, so 
that an unbroken chain of prophetic events concerning these 
kingdoms may be easity seen. 

“ Belshazzar, the king, made a great feast to a thousand of 
his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. While he 
tasted the wine he commanded to bring the golden and silver 
vessels which his father, Nebuchadnezzar, had taken out of 
the temple, which was in Jerusalem; that the king and his 
princes, his wives and his concubines, might drink wine 
therein. Then they brought the golden vessels that were 
taken out of the temple of the house of Gfod, which was at 
Jerusalem; and the king and his princes, his wives and his 
concubines, drank in them, and they praised the gods of .gold, 
silver, brass, iron, wood and of stone. In the same hour came 
forth a finger of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the 
candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace. 
Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts 
troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and 
his knees smote one against another.” After the astrologers, 
the soothsayers and the Chaldeans were summoned by the 
king, and could not read the writing, nor make known the 
interpretation thereof, the prophet Daniel was called. Then 
Daniel answered before the king, “Let thy gifts be to thyself, 
and give thy rewards to others ; yet I will read the writ¬ 
ing unto the king and make known to him the interpre¬ 
tation. O, thou king, the Most high God gave Nebuchad¬ 
nezzar, thy father, a kingdom and majesty and glory and 
honor ; and for the majesty He gave him, all people and lan¬ 
guages trembled and feared before him; whom he would he 
slew, and whom he would he kept alive ; whom he would he 
set up, and whom he would he put down. 

“But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in 
pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne ; and they took 
his glory from him, and he was driven from the sons of men, 
and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling place 
was with the wild asses ; they fed him with grass, like the 
oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he 


94 


The Philosophy of 


knew that the Most High ruled in the kingdom of men, and 
that He appointed over it whomsoever He would, and thou, his 
son, 0 Belshazzar, hast not humbled thy heart, though thou 
knowest all this ; but hast lifted up thyself against the God of 
heaven, and they have brought the vessels of His house before 
thee, and thou and thy lords, thy wives and thy concubines, 
have drank wine in them ; and thou hast praised the gods of 
silver, gold, brass, iron, wood and stone, which see not, nor 
hear, nor know; and the God, in whom thy breath is, and 
whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified, then was the 
part of the hand sent from Him, and this writing was 
written, and this was the writing that was written: Mene, 
Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. This is the interpretation of 
the thing: Mene, God hath numbered thy kingdom and 
finished it. Tekel, Thou are weighed in the balance and found 
wanting. Peres, thy kingdom is divided and given to the 
Medes and Persians. Then commanded Belshazzar, and they 
clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his 
neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should 
be the third ruler in the kingdom. In that night was Bel¬ 
shazzar, king of the Chaldeans, slain, and Darius, the Persian, 
took the kingdom, being about three score and two years old.” 
Thus fell the Chaldean monarchy, to quote the emphatic 
words expressive of the event “ God hath numbered thy king¬ 
dom and finished it. Thy kingdom is divided and given to 
the Medes and Persians.” This brings us down from the 
golden head of the image, which was now fulfilled, and passed 
away, as ruling the world, into the breast and arms of silver, 
the two arms symbolizing the Medes and Persians, between 
whom, conjointly, was committed the empire, or kingdom — 
Cyrus, the Mede, and Darius, the Persian — and hence was 
established the Medo-Persian monarchy, and the second 
universal kingdom of the world. It will be observed that the 
phraseology descriptive of this universal dominion, passing 
from one ruler to another, is always one. Adam had it; God 
gave it to Nebuchadnezzar. It was inherited by Belshazzar, 
and held by others, and finally assumed by Christ as His 


God and the World. 


95 


universal dominion; and, while passing through all its changes, 
God, the Most High, indirectly ruled and reigned over it, 
and “ gave it to whomsoever He would,” providentially con¬ 
trolling the political events, growing out of this march of 
empire, preserving the administration of law and government 
as favorable for the development of His great purpose — the 
prosperity of His church, as was possible with wicked and 
godless rulers. 


96 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER VII. 

THE VISION OF THE FOUR BEASTS OF DANIEL. 

In the city of Babylon the conquerors found the children 
of Israel in captivity, where they had been carried seventy 
years before, by Nebuchadnezzar, at which time he had 
burned the temple of Solomon. These captives were now set 
at liberty, and permitted to go up and rebuild the temple and 
city of Jerusalem, at the expense of the public treasury. 
Ezra v, 14—“And they builded and furnished it according 
to the commandment of the Grod of Israel, and according to 
the commandment of Cyrus and Darius, kings of Persia.” 
In following down the history of the four universal kingdoms, 
symbolized by the metallic image, so as to preserve the con¬ 
nection, we here introduce a vision given to the prophet 
Daniel, in which they are again symbolized by four wild 
beasts, with the interpretation: “In the third year of the 
reign of Belshazzar, a vision appeared unto me, after that 
which appeared unto me at the first. I saw in a vision and it 
came to pass that I was at Shushan, in the palace, which was 
in the province of Elam. I saw in a vision, and I was by the 
river Ulai. Then I lifted up my eyes, and behold, there stood 
before the river a ram, which had two horns; and the two 
horns were high ; but one was higher than the other, and the 
higher came up last. I saw the ram pushing westward and 
northward and southward, so that no beasts might stand 
before him, neither was there any able to deliver out of his 
hand; but he did according to his will and became great. 
And, as I was considering, behold, a he goat came from the 
west, and he touched not the ground; and the goat had a 
notable horn between his eyes, and he came to the ram, which 
I had seen standing by the river, with the two horns, and ran 
unto him in the fury of his power; and I saw him come close 


God and the World. 


97 


unto the ram, and he was moved with color against him and 
smote the ram, and brake his two horns, and there was no 
power in the ram to stand before him, bat he cast him down 
to the ground, and stamped upon him; and there was none 
that could deliver the ram out of his hand. Therefore the he 
goat waxed very great, and when lie was strong the great 
horn was broken, and for it came up four notable ones toward 
tlie four winds of heaven. 

“ And it came to pass when I, even I, Daniel, had seen the 
vision, and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood 
before me, as the appearance of a man. And I heard a man’s 
voice between the banks of Ulai, which called and said, 
‘Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.’ So he 
came where I stood ; and when he came I was afraid, and fell 
upon my face ; but he said unto me, ‘ Understand, O son of 
man, for at the time of the end shall be the vision.’ Now, as 
he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on my face 
toward the ground, but he touched me and set me upright, and 
he said, ‘ Behold, I will make thee know what shail be in the 
last end of the indignation, for at the time appointed the end 
shall be. The ram which thou sawest having two horns are 
the Icings of Media and Persia , and the rough goat is the 
king of Grecia; and the horn that is between his eyes is the 
first king. Now that being broken, whereas four stood up 
for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but 
not in his power.’ ” The two horns on the ram, here symbol¬ 
izing the Medes and Persians, joined in the kingdom, are also 
the same as symbolized by the two arms on the breast of the 
image. We here introduce a passage of profane history 
descriptive of this battle fought between Alexander the Great, 
symbolized by the notable horn on the head of the he goat, 
as the first king of Grecia, and Darius, the Medo-Persian 
king, symbolized by the ram with the two liorn^. Daniel had 
this vision in the year 553, before Christ, and the battle it 
symbolizes was fought in the year B. C. 334. We cpiote from 
Goldsmith’s history of Greece, page 272. The river which is 

13 


98 


The Philosophy of 


tlie theater of this great battle called by the prophet Ulai is 
here called, by the historian, writing of it two hundred and 
twenty years afterward, Penarius. “Alexander had advanced 
at first very slowly to prevent the ranks on the front of his 
phalanx from breaking, and halted by intervals, and when he 
was within bow shot, he commanded all the right wing to 
plunge impetuously into the river, purposely that he might 
surprise the barbarians, come sooner to a close engagement, 
and be less exposed to the enemies’ arrows, in all of which he 
was very successful. Both sides fought with the utmost 
bravery and resolution, and being now forced to fight close , 
( C I saw him come close unto the ram,’) they charged both 
sides, sword in hand, when a dreadful slaughter ensued; for 
they engaged man to man, each aiming the point of his sword 
at the face of his opponent. Alexander, who performed the 
duty both of a private soldier and commander, wished 
nothing so ardently as the glory of killing Darius with his 
own hands, who, being seated on a high chariot, was con¬ 
spicuous to the whole army, and by that means was a power¬ 
ful object both to encourage his soldiers to defend, and the 
enemy to attack, him. And now the battle grew more furiou s 
and bloody than before, so that great numbers of the Persian 
noblemen were killed. Each side fought with incredible 
bravery. Oxatres, brother to Darius, observing that Alexan¬ 
der w~as going to. charge that monarch with the utmost vigor, 
rushed before his chariot with the horse under his command 
and distinguished himself above the rest. The horses that 
drew Darius’ s chariot lost all command, and shook the yoke 
so violently that they were upon the point of overturning the 
king, who, seeing himself going to fall alive into the hands 
of his enemies, leaped down and mounted another chariot. 
The army, observing this, threw down their arms and fled 
from the field as fast as possible.” There was no power in 
the ram with his two horns to stand before the notable horn 
on the he goat. Alexander now assumes the empire and 
becomes the third universal monarch of the world, answering 
to the third part of the metallic image, who, when he heard 


God and the World. 99 

it said the planets were inhabited, “ wept that his conquests 
were confined to one world.” 

We have now seen that we are furnished with the record of 
the three first of the universal empires by name, which brings 
us down into the legs and toes of the image; these different 
parts symbolize so many features of the fourth empire, which 
is to follow and take the dominion from Greece. Though its 
name is not given, yet we know just as well that it was Rome 
as though it was. It is represented as being more powerful 
and enduring than any of those preceding, which is true only 
of Rome, among the nations of the earth. Thus, “ And the 
fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, forasmuch as iron 
breaketli in pieces and subdueth all things, and as iron 
breaketh all these (the fabric of the image preceding), it shall 
break in pieces and bruise.” This fourth part of the image 
also represents the most prominent and important charac¬ 
teristics of the Roman Empire, the two legs signifying its 
grand division into eastern and western, and the ten toes its 
subdivision, the ten kingdoms into which the Roman Empire 
was divided. The iron, being mixed with potters’ clay, repre¬ 
sents its comparative weakness, in its divided form. This 
feature is forcibly suggested by the title of Gibbon’s history, 
The “ decline and fall of the Roman Empire .” We shall 
not indulge in any. particular references to the effort of 
Catholic writers to make this part of the image apply to other 
powers than Rome, Pagan and Papal, in order to avert the 
terrible doom of being dashed to pieces by Christ, the stone 
from the mountain, as his implacable enemies. Antiochus, 
the king of one of the four divisions of Alexander’s empire, 
has been fixed upon as the most prominent individual thus 
signified, but he no more answers the symbolization than 
George Washington. Nothing but a universal empire can do 
this. At the period of the birth of Christ, Rome had subdued 
all the divisions of the Grecian empire, and it held all the 
dominion of the earth; all were tributary to Ceesar. Luke ii, 
1, 2— “ And it came to pass in those days, that there went 
out a decree from Csesar Augustus, that all the world should 


100 


The Philosophy of 


be taxed.” The Jews also were under his dominion. Said 
they to Jesus, “We have no king but Caesar.” From the 
vision of the ram and rough goat, nothing can be more 
evident than that Rome succeeded Greece in swaying the 
dominion of the world. “And the rough goat is the king¬ 
dom of Grecia, and the great horn is the first king. Now 
that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four king 
doms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power. 
In the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors 
are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and under¬ 
standing dark sentences, shall stand up, and his power shall 
be mighty, but not by his own power, and he shall destroy won¬ 
derfully, and shall practice and prosper, and shall destroy 
the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy, 
also, he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand, and he shall 
magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy 
many; he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes, 
but he shall be broken without hand.” Chap, viii, 9-15.—“And 
out of one of them (the divisions of Alexander’s kingdom) 
came forth a little horn, which waxed exceedingly great, 
toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleas¬ 
ant land, and it waxed great, even to the host of heaven ; and 
it cast down some of the host, and of the stars, to the ground, 
and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even to 
the Prince of the Host, and by Him the daily sacrifice was 
taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down; 
and an host was given him against the daily sacrifice, by 
reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the 
ground; and it practiced and prospered. Then I heard one 
saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint 
which spake: How long shall be the vision concerning the 
daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give 
both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot ? 
And he said unto me, unto two thousand three hundred days, 
then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Here we are presented 
with the history of Home, including its Pagan and Papal 
religions. 


God and the World. 


101 


After making a remark, and before entering on tlie imme¬ 
diate investigation of this remarkable passage of Divine pre¬ 
diction, we will introduce a passage of profane history in 
relation to the Grecian empire, after the death of Alexander, 
in connection with its fall, and the advent of the Roman 
empire. The remark relates to the four horns on the head of 
the “he goat,” which came up after the notable horn, the 
first king. These represent the four kingdoms into which 
Greece was divided, at the death of Alexander, and Rome as 
coming out of one of them. We quote from the Treasury of 
History, vol. 1, page 41: “ Alexander died at Babylon, B. C. 
323, so suddenly that he made no provision for his successor, 
leaving the affairs of his vast empire in a most unsettled state. 
In the western world, at this period, great kingdoms were 
evolving from obscurity, and events of the highest importance 
succeeding each other with unexampled rapidity. The first 
object that here claims our attention is the establishment and 
growth of the Roman Republic. In 509, B. C., Tarquin, the 
last king of Rome, was expelled, and the government intrusted 
to two magistrates, annually elected, called counsels. Thus 
the republic proceeded, though amid perpetual jealousies and 
contentions, till it reached its highest pitch of power and 
grandeur by the successive conquest of Italy (“the pleasant 
land”) and her isles, Spain, Macedonia, Carthage, Asia Minor, 
Syria, Palestine, Gaul, Britain and Egypt. On the death of 
Alexander the Great, four new empires immediately, as it 
were, sprung up. He had left behind him a large and vic¬ 
torious army, commanded by generals, who, bred in the same 
school, were not less ambitious of sovereign rule than their 
master. Cassender, the son of Antipater, seized Macedonia 
and Greece ; Antigonus, Asia Minor ; Selecus marked out for 
his share Babylon and the eastern provinces; and Ptolemy, 
Egypt and the western provinces.” In this picture of human 
history, we have the exact fulfillment of the Divine, written 
in prediction hundreds of years before the occurrence of 
these events. In the examination of those passages already 
quoted, relating to the fourth universal kingdom succeeding 


102 


The Philosophy of 


tlie Grecian, being the Roman; and the prophetic period of 
two thousand three hundred days, a part of which covers its 
civil history from the year 588, when it destroyed the Pagan 
and established the Papal, as the religion of the empire, ter¬ 
minating with the loss of that power, in the year 1848, A. D. 
That these days are symbols of years we shall see is suscep¬ 
tible of demonstration. 


God and the World. 


103 


CHAPTER YIII. 

TIME COVERING THESE EVENTS SHOWN TO THE PROPHETS. 

The prophet saw in divine perspective the rise, progress, 
and fall of the fourth universal monarchy, and how long it 
was to run clothed with the power which it had when he saw 
it take away the daily sacrifice, (Paganism,) and establish 
Popery, “the abomination that maketh desolate. 5 ’ “How 
long it should be to the end of these wonders? 55 to which 
Gabriel answered, “Unto two thousand three hundred days. 55 
The prophet closes this chapter, especially the great events 
of this vision, thus : “And I was astonished at the vision, but 
none understood it.” The prophet evidently supposed that 
the whole vision, with all its terrible commotions and judg¬ 
ments, applied to his people, the Jews, hence he says : “As 
I was confessing my sins, and the sins of my people, Israel, 
and praying and making supplication before the Lord my 
God, for the holy mountain of my God, yea, while I was 
speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen 
in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, 
touched me about the time of the evening oblation, and he 
informed me and talked with me, and said, 4 O, Daniel, I am 
now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the 
beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, 
and I am come to show thee, for thou art greatly beloved, 
therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. 5 55 
It is necessary to be observed here, that this is the vision of 
the seventh chapter, and of the two thousand three hundred 
days, covering the events it brings to view, and which he 
said “none understood;” and now while the prophet is 
praying about it, Gabriel is sent to give him skill and under¬ 
standing concerning it. This is the circumstance to which 


104 


The Philosophy of 


Peter alludes when he says, “ The prophets searched diligently 
what (time) and what manner of time the Spirit of Christ 
which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand 
of the suffering of Christ and the glory that should follow; 
unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto 
us, they did minister the things which are now reported 
unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you, 
with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the 
angels desire to look into.” Hot only did the prophets search 
diligently to understand about this prophetic period, to know 
what manner of time it was, whether a day for a day, or a 
day for a year, which reached to the sufferings of Christ and 
the glory that should follow, but the angels also desire to 
look into it, and it is about this very period they inquire, 
because it is the only one in the Bible about which angels did 
inquire. Thus: “Then I heard one saint” (angel) “speak¬ 
ing, and another saint said unto that certain saint which 
spake: ‘ How long shall be the vision concerning the daily 
sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation to give both the 
sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot ? 5 And he 
said unto me, ‘Unto two thousand three hundred days. 5 ” 
Here we see that one angel inquired of another concerning 
this time, but the answer was returned to Daniel. “The 
angels desired to look into it,” but were not gratified, for 
Gabriel gave the answer to the prophet, and, “he said unto 
me, ‘Unto two thousand three hundred days. 5 5 5 Hence, as 
Peter declares, it was not revealed to the angels, but to the 
prophet. That is, a period of time which reached from the 
event of its date to the crucifixion of Christ and His glorifica¬ 
tion, and as it is also the only prophetic period connected 
with these events, and about which the prophet searched 
diligently to understand, as well as that which the angels 
desired to look into, is it not certain, not only that it is the 
very one, but also that it is of vast importance to the church % 
especially if it occupies a chronological position near the 
termination of this period, the first part of which, as we shall 
see, was strictly fulfilled at the crucifixion, from which we 


God and the World. 


105 


may infer that the last will also be, when Christ shall be 
glorified. “Come in the glory of His Father with all His 
holy angels with Him.” Emphatically expressed by Peter, 
“ Time for the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should 
follow.” Hot then as the man of sorrows, and acquainted 
with grief. Hot then the Babe of Bethlehem, with His head 
lying low as the beasts of the stall. 

“ O, how changed! Terror and glory joined 
In their extremes. Our God in grandeur. 

And our world on fire.” 

How, as Gabriel has been dispatched from heaven to give 
the prophet to understand this period of time and the events 
it covers, and as Peter says it was revealed to the prophets 
“ for us,” let us endeavor to profit by the instruction thus com¬ 
municated ; and we commence where we left off, with the 
words of the angel, “ Therefore understand the matter and 
consider the vision.” “ Seventy weeks are determined upon 
thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish transgression, 
and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for 
iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to 
seal up the vision and the prophecy, and to anoint the Most 
Holy. Know, therefore, and understand, that from the going 
forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem 
unto Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and three score 
and two weeks ; the street shall be built again, and the wall, 
even in troublous times. And after three score and two weeks 
shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself; and the people 
of the prince that shall come” (the Roman army) “shall 
destroy the city, and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall 
be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are 
determined. And He shall confirm the covenant with many 
for one week , and in the midst of the week he shall cause the 
sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading 
of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the con¬ 
summation, and that determined shall be poured upon the 
desolate .” When Jesus pronounced the doom of Jerusalem, 
it was in the words, “ Behold! now your house is left unto 
14 


106 


The Philosophy of 


you desolate .” Now, tlie prophet understands that only 
seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety days of the two 
thousand and three hundred, were determined to be fulfilled 
upon his people, the Jews, and this was divided into three 
parts, so that by the fulfillment of the first they might know 
whether it was literal time, or figurative, a day for a day, or 
a day for a year. As, therefore, the four hundred and ninety 
days were fulfilled in so many years, it follows, that the 
remainder of the two thousand three hundred were also to be 
fulfilled in the same manner of time, a year for a day. 

The divisions of the seventy weeks, as we have seen, are 
seven, sixty-two and one week, and, indeed, the one week was 
divided into two halves. That the first seven weeks, forty- 
nine days, were fulfilled in years for days, is evident from the 
following considerations: First, the work to be done, the 
rebuilding of the street, the wall, and the temple of Jerusa- 
lem, which could not have been done in forty-nine days of 
twenty-four hours each, and which the following conversa¬ 
tion between Jesus and the Jews proves were so many years : 
u Jesus answered and said unto them, ‘Destroy this temple 
and in three days I will raise it up.’ Then said the Jews, 

4 Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt 
thou set it up in three days?’ ” By reference to this work, 
recorded by Ezra, it will be seen that the Jews began to build 
the wall of the city before they laid the foundation of the 
temple, which was only done in the second year after coming 
into Jerusalem. Ezra iii, 8. The people numbered about 
fifty thousand. The building of the wall, being the first work, 
probably occupied the first three years, and the temple the 
other forty-six, making the forty-nine years, fulfilling the 
seven weeks in years for days ; thus giving us the key to 
the manner of the whole time of the vision, not only of the 
seventy weeks of which it was the first part, but also of the 
whole two thousand three hundred days, of which the 
seventy weeks, or the four hundred and ninety days, was the 
first factor. It is reasonable to suppose that the first forty- 
nine years of the vision was cut off from the whole period, 


God and the World. 


107 


and thus fulfilled for the purpose of giving the Jews a clue, 
so that they might understand the manner of the time and be 
able, when the next division of it, reaching to Messiah the 
Prince, should terminate, to know positively that he had 
come, or the prediction had failed. But they were, neverthe¬ 
less, ignorant concerning it, and when Jesus, the Messiah, 
did come, he told them that they “ perished because they 
Icnew not the time of their visitation” which could not have 
been true if no period of time had been given reaching to His 
advent, neither would such a calamity have been just, had 
they not been furnished with positive proof that the four 
hundred and ninety days were so many years. 

The next division of this period is introduced thus : “Unto 
Messiah, the Prince, shall be three score and two weeks.” 
This four hundred and thirty-four years (sixty-two weeks) 1 * 
reaches from the end of the forty-nine to Christ’s anointing: 
“To anoint the Most Holy.” This was done at His baptism, 
initiating him into His ministry. “And straightway coming 
up out of the water, He saw the heavens opened and the spirit 
like a dove descending upon Him; and there came a voice 
from heaven saying, ‘ Thou art My beloved Son in whom I am 
well pleased.’ And Jesus began to be about thirty years of 
age.” He was then tempted forty days, at the expiration 
of which we have the following : “ Now, after that John was 

put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel 
of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘ The time is fulfilled .’ 
And Jesus returned in the power of the spirit into Galilee, 
and there went out a fame of Him through all the region 
round about. And He taught in their synagogues, being 
glorified by all. And He came to Nazareth, where He had 
been brought up, and, as His custom was, went into the syna¬ 
gogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read; and there 
was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Easaias, and 
when He had opened the book, He found the place where it is 
written, ‘ The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath 
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent 
me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the 


108 


The Philosophy of 


captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty 
them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the 
Lord; ’ and He closed the book and gave it again to the 
minister, and sat down; and the eyes of all them that were 
in the synagogue were fastened on Him, and He began to say 
unto them, ‘This day is the scripture fulfilled in your ears.’ ” 
From these scriptures we learn that Jesus was about thirty 
years of age when He was thus anointed, and this was the 
first sermon He preached, and the first sentence of it was, 
’“ The time is fulfilled ,” and, of course, was the sixty-two 
weeks of the seventy of Daniel, which was to end with the 
anointing of the Most Holy. Thus we see that the two frac • 
tions, the seven weeks and the sixty-two weeks, making 
sixty-nine of the seventy, or four hundred and eighty-three 
"years instead of days, ended when Jesus was thirty years of 
age, which result is not at all dependent upon human chro¬ 
nology. This brings us to the consideration of the last week 
or seventieth of the period. ‘ 6 And he shall confirm the cove¬ 
nant with many for one week, and in the midst of the week 
He shall be cut off, and He shall cause the sacrifice and 
oblation to cease,” of course, by making himself an oblation 
and sacrifice for the sins of the world. In regard to this 
seven years, during which the covenant was to be confirmed, 
it must be remembered that they belonged to the Jews, and, 
therefore, ended with the Jewish dispensation, and, conse¬ 
quently, with the commencement of the Gentile. In thus 
confirming the covenant with many, it was done both by 
Jesus and the apostles; He preached the first three and a 
half years, and they the remaining three and a half. Gal. iii, 
19.—“And this Isay that the covenant, that was confirmed 
before of God in Christ.” Heb. ii, 3.—“How shall we escape 
if we neglect so great salvation; which at first began to be 
spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that 
heard Him, God also bearing them witness both with signs 
and wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy 
Ghost.” Jesus was thirty years of age when he began to 
preach, and preached three years and a half, being crucified 


God and the World. 


109 


in the middle of the week, left the other three and a half 
years which belonged to the Jews, for the confirmation of the 
covenant, to be accomplished by the apostles. It must be 
remembered that Gabriel said to Daniel, “ Seventy weeks are 
determined upon tliy people /” the whole seventy must run 
out before their dispensation pnded, or the Gentile began; 
hence we can understand the following prohibition : Matt, x, 
15.—“ These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, 
saying, ‘ Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any 
city of the Samaritans enter ye not, but go rather t(* the lost 
sheep of the house of Israel, and, as ye go, preach, saying, 
the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” This was also recognized 
in the last great commission after His resurrection.” “And 
He said unto them, ‘ thus it is written, and thus it behooved 
Christ to suffer ; and to rise from the dead the third day, and 
that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in 
His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem , and ye 
are witnesses of these things.’ ” 

Thus were the labors of the disciples confined to the Jews, 
for three years and a half after the gift of the Holy Ghost, 
because the four hundred and ninety years did not expire 
until that time. The event which marked the close of the 
Jewish, and commencement of the Gentile dispensation was 
the vision of the sheet, containing all manner of beasts, shown 
to Peter, being let down from heaven, to whom it was said, 
“Rise, Peter, kill and eat.” The result of which was, that 
while he was preaching the first sermon to the Gentiles, the 
Holy Ghost fell on them just as it had on the Jews, at the 
preaching of Peter’s first sermon, on the day of Pentecost. 
Just about this time, also, Paul was converted, and com¬ 
missioned as the apostle of the Gentiles. Thus ended the 
four hundred and ninety days of the two thousand three hun¬ 
dred. The first being fulfilled in a year for a day, the 
remainder must also be so fulfilled, and we shall find that the 
events it covers are so fulfilled, strikingly corroborating and 
confirming this view. The prominent events which the latter 
part of this period comprehend are the destruction of 


110 


The Philosophy of 


Paganism, and establishment of Papacy, as the religion of the 
Roman Empire, we mean as a temporal, as well as an ecclesias¬ 
tical, power. This change commenced in the reign of Constan¬ 
tine the Great, in the beginning of the fourth, and ended with 
that of Justinian, in the latter part of the fifth century. It 
must be remembered that Rome was now not only divided 
into two grand empires, the eastern and western, represented 
by the two legs of the metallic image, but was also subdivided 
into ten kingdoms, represented by the ten toes of the image. 

We will here give their names and dates of establishment: 
First, the Huns, A. D. 356 ; second, the Ostrogoths, 377; 
third, the Vandals, 407 ; fourth, the Franks, 407 ; fifth, 
Suvers, 407; sixth, Saxons, 407; seventh, Burgundians, 407; 
eighth, Heruli, 476; ninth, Lombards, 483; tenth, Visigoths, 
of Spain, 586. 

It is so well known and acknowledged, by the agreement 
of all universal historians, that Rome was thus first divided 
into two grand empires, the eastern and western, and, subse¬ 
quently, into ten subdivisions, as we have given them, that it 
is not necessary to enlarge upon the subject. It is true that it 
was afterward divided into other fragments, but this does not 
weaken the force of the prophetic fulfillment, wdiich requires 
that it should have been thus divided, and the boundaries of 
these sovereigns defined, so as to exactly answer the symbolic 
representation of the legs and toes of the image, given for the 
purpose that the world or church might understand that 
Rome was the fourth universal empire, wdiich should rule the 
world, whose continuation, in some of its prophetic forms, 
would run parallel with time. Now, as these kingdoms did 
not exist when Christ was on earth, and as His kingdom was 
to succeed them, and in their days to be set up; therefore, 
that kingdom was not established at his first mission to earth, 
consequently the event is yet future, and which, the following 
Scriptures show, takes place at his second coming. 

“Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out of the mountain 
without hands, which smote the image on the feet that were 
of iron and clay and brake them to pieces; then vms the iron 


God and the World. 


Ill 


the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces 
together and became like the chaff of the summer threshing 
floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was 
found for them ; and the stone that smote the image became 
a great mountain, and filled the whole earth, and in the days 
of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom 
which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not 
be left to other people, but it shall brake in pieces and con¬ 
sume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” A most 
consummate error has been committed by confounding this 
event with the establishment of the kingdom of grace by 
Christ at His first advent. Its advocates have perverted 
scripture by describing this stone as rolling and gradually 
absorbing all the kingdoms of the world, and, like the Jews, 
seem determined to make Him, Christ, such a king, although 
He declared, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Mark how 
such teaching contrasts with the phraseology descriptive of 
the movement of this stone. It smote the image on the feet , 
and thus violently dashed the whole remaining fabric of the 
image into pieces, and which like chaff were carried away by 
the wind ; but this allusion to error is a digression from our 
plan, we only propose to present the truth, or to give what 
we suppose the scriptures teach, and every one is at liberty to 
compare the arguments and conclusions with his own opinions 
or those of others, many of which have so poisoned the mind 
of the world that we cannot afford to give them further pub¬ 
licity. Ho we not, however, perceive that Christ could not be 
represented as smiting the image upon the feet and toes, 
while upon earth, from the fact that they were^pot then in 
existence ; beside this, the Roman empire, represented by the 
fourth part of the image, was in no sense smitten, or dashed 
in pieces, as here taught, by Christ while on earth ; so far as 
any smiting was done, it was quite the reverse. It was a 
Roman governor and Roman soldiers who smote Christ with 
crucifixion, and instead of Jesus being at that time any 
antagonist to Rome, he was perfectly submissive to her 
indignities, and the very conversation which occurred at 


112 


The Philosophy of 


Pilate’s judgment hall and elsewhere, shows that His assump¬ 
tion of kingly power was not then to transpire. “ Art Thou 
then a King?” Pilate asked. His response was, “To this 
end was I born, but My kingdom is not of this world ” (but 
the world to come). “ It is not from henceforth ; it does not 
now begin. I am as a nobleman, traveling into a far country, 
to receive for Myself a kingdom and to return.” It is at this 
return that the wicked nations of the earth, symbolized by 
the toes of this great image, are to be dashed to pieces 
together. “On whomsoever it” (this stone) “shall fall, it 
will grind him to powder.” It is the same event and time as 
recorded in the second Psalm : “Let the heathen rage, let 
them take counsel together against the Lord’s anointed ” (as 
they did when they put Him to death. “Pilate and Herod 
were made friends”). “Yet He that sitteth in the heavens 
shall laugh, the Lord will have them in derision ; then shall 
He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore 
displeasure” (not convert them by His mild gospel), “yet 
will I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion ; I will declare 
the decree: the Lord said unto My Lord, sit Thou on My 
right hand till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. Ask of 
Me and I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, 
and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession ; Thou 
shalt break them with a rod of iron ; Thou shalt dash them 
in pieces like a potter’s vessel; be wise now, therefore, O, ye 
kings.” 

It is in the days of this fragmentary condition of Rome, 
that the God of heaven is to set up His final and glorious 
kingdom, and it is to be on the ruins of those of earth, and 
establish the same universal dominion which the four pre¬ 
vious empires held, but not till the earth is purified by fire 
and the new earth created, which is to be ushered in by the' 
following angelic proclamation: “The kingdoms of thi$ 
world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His 
Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.” It is for this 
kingdom that the saints of all ages look and hope. “And 
they sang a new song, saying, £ Thou art worthy to take the 


113 


God and tee World. 

book, and to open the seven seals thereof; for Thou wast 
slain and hast redeemed us unto God by Thy blood, out of 
every kindred, tongue, people and nation, and hast made us 
unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the 
earth? ’’ Here are the whole company of the redeemed who 
had once lived and died on the earth, and were then members 
of the church, and in the spiritual kingdom, and yet they 
sing in glorious anticipation of a future triumphant reign on 
the earth, and in the kingdom of God; of course, it is not 
this sin-cursed earth, but the new earth, which God promised 
the prophet he would create from its ashes. 

15 


114 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER IX. 

PAPACY DESTROYS PAGANISM AND TAKES ITS PLACE. 

We come now to the more direct discussion relative to the 
destruction of Paganism, and the establishment of Papacy in 
connection with the prophetic periods. We remark here that 
we denominate that religious system commenced by Constan¬ 
tine the Great, and consummated by Justinian, the Papacy , 
and not the Christian church, being the corrupt Antichrist of 
the Scriptures. 

In order to obtain proper views of this subject, it is neces¬ 
sary that we should here arrange the prophetic history of 
Rome, which survived and grew out of the Grecian empire, 
in the order in which it was given to the prophets ; but more 
particularly that relating to the Papacy, symbolized by the 
“ little horn.” also denominated “ The abomination that 
maketh desolate,” or “ The transgression of desolation spoken 
of by Daniel the prophet,” as Christ quotes it, standing in 
the holy place (Christian church), or the sanctuary, as the 
prophet calls it, or, as represented by Paul, “ The man of 
sin who sitteth in the temple of God , showing himself that he 
is God.” All of which are fulfilled by the arrogant claim of 
the Papists, that the Pope is Christ’s vicegerent, exercising 
his prerogatives of prophet, priest and king, “the center of 
infallibility and Catholicity.” We refer again to Dan. viii. : 
“And out of one of them (that is, out of one of the divisions 
of the Grecian empire) came forth a little horn, which waxed 
exceedingly great toward the east, and toward the west, and 
toward the pleasant land, and it waxed great even to the host 
of heaven ; and it cast down some of the host, and of the 
stars, to the ground, and stamped upon them; yea, he mag¬ 
nified himself, even to the prince of the host, and by him the 


God and the World. 


115 


daily sacrifice was taken away (paganism), and the place of 
his sanctuary (idol temples) was cast down. And a host was 
given him against the daily sacrifice, by reason of transgres¬ 
sion, and it cast down the truth to the ground, and it practiced 
and prospered.” 

We here introduce the vision of the four beasts, given to 
this same prophet, and prior to the above explanation, and its 
revelation by the angel of Jesus to his servant John, on the 
Isle of Patmos : “In the first year of the reign of Belshazzar, 
king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions of his head 
upon his bed ; then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of 
the matters. Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by 
night, and behold, the four winds of heaven strove upon the 
great sea, and four great beasts came up out of the sea, diverse 
one from another; the first beast was like a lion, and had 
eagle’s wings; I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, 
and it was lifted up from the earth, and made to stand upon 
the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it; and I 
beheld another beast, a second like to a bear, and it raised up 
itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it 
between the teeth of it; and they said thus unto it, arise, 
devour much flesh. After this I beheld, and lo, another, like a 
leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; 
and the beast had also four heads, and dominion was given to 
it. After this I saw, in the night, visions, and behold, a 
fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly ; 
and it had great iron teeth ; it devoured and brake in pieces 
and stamped the residue with the feet of it; and it was diverse 
from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns ; 
and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, 
before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by 
the roots ; and, behold, in this horn were eyes, like the eyes 
of man, and a mouth speaking great things. 

“I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of 
Days did sit, whose garment was white, like snow, and the 
hair of his head like the pure wool; his throne was like the 
fiery flame, and his wheels like burning fire; a fiery stream 


116 


The Philosophy of 


issued and came forth from before him; thousand thousands 
ministered unto him ; ten thousand times ten thousand stood 
before him, the judgment was set and the books were opened. 
I beheld then, because of the great words which the horn 
spake; I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body 
destroyed and given to the burning flame. As concerning the 
rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away; yet 
their lives were prolonged for a season, and a time. I saw in 
the night vision, and, behold, one like the Son of Man, came 
with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, 
and they brought him near before Him, and there was given 
him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, 
nations and languages should serve Him ; His dominion is an 
everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His 
kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. I, Daniel, was 
grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions 
of my head troubled me. I came near unto one of them that 
stood by, and asked him the truth of all this, so he told me, 
and made me know the interpretation of the things. These 
great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise 
out of the earth ; but the saints of the Most High shall take 
the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever 
and ever. Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, 
which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, 
whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass, which 
devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his 
feet, and of the ten horns .that were in his head, and of the 
other which came up, and before whom three fell, even of that 
horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, 
whose look was more stout than his fellows. I beheld, and 
the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against 
them, until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was 
given to the saints of the Most High ; and the time came that 
the saints possessed the kingdojn. Thus he said the fourth 
beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be 
diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, 
and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces, and the ten 


God and the World. 


117 

horns ont of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise ; and 
another shall arise after them, and he shall be diverse from 
the first, and he shall subdue three kings, and he shall speak 
great words against the Most High, and shall wear ont the 
saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws ; 
and they shall be given into his hand, until a time, and times, 
and the dividing of time; but the judgment shall set, and 
they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy 
it unto the end, and the kingdom and the dominion and the 
greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be 
given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose 
kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall 
serve and obey him ; hitherto is the end of the matter; as for 
me, Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me, and my coun¬ 
tenance changed in me, but I kept the matter in my heart.” 

We wish here to direct special attention to the leading 
truths taught in this wonderful divine portraiture of the four 
human dynasties whose successive reign reach from the Chal¬ 
dean, in which Daniel lived when God gave him this vision, 
to the establishment, under the whole heaven, of the everlast¬ 
ing kingdom of God. First. That these four beasts signify 
four kingdoms. Second. These kingdoms are universal, 
bearing rule over all the known nations of the earth, at the 
time they flourished. Third. That they succeed each other 
in the march of empire, holding in turn the dominion of the 
earth. Fourth. That this same kingdom and dominion under 
the whole heaven is to be assumed and possessed by Christ 
and His saints. Fifth. That this event takes place at the day 
of judgment. Sixth. That this kingdom is eternal, not to be 
given to others, and never to be destroyed; and, therefore, is 
not the kingdom of grace, for this is to have an end. Seventh. 
That the fourth, or last of these empires, is to be divided by 
the events of its history into ten horns, representing ten 
kingdoms. Eighth. That a little horn is to rule these ten, 
three at first and finally the whole ; that this little horn speaks 
great words against the Most High, assumes His prerogatives, 
changes times and laws, is a civil ruler. He wears out the 


118 


The Philosophy of 


saints of the Most High for a time, times and the dividing of 
time, or persecutes them twelve hundred and sixty years. 
That he is never to be converted to Christianity, but is to 
prosper as he is till the judgment. That before this he will 
have lost all civil power, and shall be confined simply to 
pompous pretensions and arrogant assumption, and shall 
remain thus impenitent till the ushering in upon him and a 
guilty world of the last great judgment. “ I beheld then,” 
(says the prophet, the last thing he was doing,) “because of 
the great words which the horn spake ; I beheld even till his 
body was destroyed and given to the burning flame,” at which 
event the time came that the saints took and possessed the 
everlasting kingdom. 

Let us now turn to this picture, as seen and described by 
the revelator, Rev. xiii, and its connections: “And I stood 
upon the sand of the sea, and saw a great beast rise up out 
of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his 
horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy; 
and the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his 
feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth 
of a lion; and the dragon gave him his power and his seat 
and great authority. And I saw one of his heads, as it were, 
wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed ; and 
all the world wondered after the beast, and they worshiped 
the dragon which gave power unto the beast, and they wor¬ 
shiped the beast, saying, 4 Who is like unto the beast ? who is 
able to make war with him % ’ and there was given unto him 
a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies ; and power 
was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And 
he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme 
His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in 
heaven ; and it was given him to make war with the saints, 
and to overcome them; and power was given him over all 
kindreds, tongues and nations, and all that dwell upon the 
earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the 
book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
world. If any man have an ear to hear let him hear: he that 


God and the World . 


119 

leadetli into captivity shall go into captivity ; he that killeth 
with the sword must be killed with the sword, here in the 
patience and the faith of the saints . 55 

The exposition of this beast is continued in the seventeenth 
chapter, thus: “And there came one of the seven angels 
which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying, £ Come 
hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great 
whore that sittetli upon many waters, with whom the kings 
of the earth have committed fornication.’ So he carried me 
away in the spirit into the wilderness ; and I saw a woman sit 
upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, 
having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was 
arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with precious 
stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of 
abominations and filthiness of her fornication ; and upon her 
forehead was a name written, ‘ Mystery, Babylon the Great, 
The Mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth ; 5 and 
I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and 
with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus ; and when I saw her, 
I wondered with great admiration, and the angel said unto 
me, ‘ Wherefore didst thou marvel % I will tell thee the 
mystery of the woman and the beast that carrieth her, which 
hath the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou 
sawest was and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless 
pit, and go into perdition; and they that dwell on the earth 
shall wonder, whose names are not written in the book of life 
from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast 
that was and is not, and yet is; and here is the mind that 
hath wisdom; the seven heads are seven mountains (king¬ 
doms) on which the woman sitteth, and there are seven kings ; 
five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come, and 
when he cometh he must continue a short space ; and the beast 
that was and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, 
and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns which thou 
sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet, 
but receive power as kings one hour with the beast; these have 
one mind, and shall agree and give their power and strength 


120 


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unto tlie beast; these shall make war with the Lamb and 
the Lamb shall overcome them, for He is Lord of Lords and 
King of Kings, and they that are with Him are called and 
chosen and faithful.’ ” (These ten kings, represented by the 
ten horns, are the same as symbolized by the ten toes of the 
metallic image.) “And he saith untome, the ‘waters which 
thou sawest where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multi¬ 
tudes, and nations, and tongues; and the ten horns which 
thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and 
make her desolate, and naked, and shall eat her flesh and 
burn her with fire, for God hath put in their hearts to fulfill 
His will and to agree, and to give their kingdom unto the 
beast until the words of God are fulfilled; and the woman 
which thou sawest is that great city that reigneth over the 
kings of the earth.’ ” 



God and the World . 


121 


CHAPTER X. 

THE FOUR BEASTS OF DANIEL AND THE SEVEN HEADED 
BEAST OF JOHN IDENTICAL. 

In order to have a correct understanding of the vision of 
the four beasts of Daniel, and the one beast of the revelator 
embracing them all, we must consider the symbols, and the 
events they represent, from the stand-point from which these 
two great prophets of God beheld and described them. These, 
as seen by Daniel, were prospective, and mapped out the most 
important civil and ecclesiastical events, which were to trans¬ 
pire in the future history of the world ; he was told that these 
great beasts, which are four, shall arise out of the earth ; and 
were, therefore, future to him, while the revelator, living later 
in the world, and after a great portion of the events seen by 
Daniel had become historic, was directed to retrospect the 
past, take cognizance of the then present, as well as to look 
down through the coming future ; hence to him it was said : 
4 4 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which 
are, and the things which shall be hereafter.” Daniel had his 
vision B. C. 537, and the revelator his A. D. 96, the period 
between being six hundred and thirty-three years. They are 
looking toward each other, and, of course, see and describe 
the beasts in a reverse order. 44 Daniel spake and said, I saw 
in my vision, and behold, the four winds of heaven strove 
upon the great sea, and four great beasts came up from the 
sea, diverse one from another ; the first beast was like a lion, 
the second like a bear, the third like a leopard, the fourth a 
great and terrible beast.” This beast, we see, had no name, 
the reason for which we suppose to be the fact that God 
never made a beast whose form and nature was sufficiently 
dreadful and terrible to adequately symbolize the Roman 
16 


122 


The Philosophy of 


empire, especially under the reign of the little horn, or Papal 
power. To illustrate and justify this remark, we quote the 
revelator’s description of the beast. 4 4 1 stood upon the sand 
of the sea, and saw a great beast rise up out of the sea, hav¬ 
ing seven heads and ten horns, and upon his heads the names 
of blasphemy, and the beast which I saw was like unto a 
leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth 
as the mouth of a lion, and the dragon gave him his power, 
and his seat, and great authority.” This dragon, it will be 
observed, is the non-descript of Daniel, the dreadful and 
terrible beast, and which also had ten horns. 

When Daniel had his vision he was a captive in the Chal¬ 
dean, or Babylonish empire, and looking down toward the 
revelator, who was in the Roman, sees these beasts coming up 
from the sea; first, the lion ; second, the bear; third, the 
leopard; and fourth, the ten-horned beast; while Daniel lived 
in that represented by the lion, John is living in Rome, the 
ten-horned beast, and the fourth and last one seen by Daniel, 
and in his vision looking back towards Daniel, sees the four 
beasts of the prophet combined in one, possessing the charac¬ 
teristics of them all, but in a reversed order. The last seen and 
named by Daniel was the first seen and named by John. Says 
he, “the beast which I saw was like a leopard” (this was the 
third seen by Daniel). “ The beast had the feet of a bear” 
(the second seen by Daniel). “The beast had also the mouth 
of a lion” ; the last one seen by John, and the one in which 
Daniel lived, and, John living in that represented by the 
dragon with his ten horns, was the first of John and the 
fourth of Daniel. 

The figure of the four winds which strove upon the great 
sea, from which these great beasts emerged, represents the civil 
commotion and warring strife of the four successive kingdoms 
for the dominion of the world, which in turn was held by 
each. “I saw” (says he, in another place), “four angels 
standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four 
winds of the earth , that the wind should not blow on the 
earth, nor on the sea, till we have sealed the servants of our 


God and the World. 


123 


God in their foreheads,” thus restraining the warring nations, 
and inaugurating a time of peace for the accomplishment of 
this great work. The figure water, or sea, is thus explained 
by the revelator, or by the angel of Jesus to him: “The 
waters which thou sawest where the whore sitteth, are peo¬ 
ples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” 

As we have already introduced the vision of Daniel and 
the revelator, containing the prophetic history of these beasts, 
it will only be necessary to notice those divisions to which we 
have referred as they occur in their order of fulfillment. Dan. 
vii, 4.— £c The first beast was like a lion.” This beast repre¬ 
sents the Chaldean kingdom, the same as the golden head of 
the metallic image, and is the first of the seven heads on the 
dragon of the revelator, which had the mouth of a lion. 
“ I beheld another beast, a second like to a bear, and it raised 
up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it, 
between the teeth of it; and they said thus unto it, ‘Arise, 
devour much flesh. 5 ” The ninth chapter, first and second 
verses, shows that this bear symbolizes the kingdom of the 
Medes and Persians. “ In the first year of Darius, the Mede, 
I stood to confirm and strengthen him, and now,” (said 
Gabriel), “I will show you the truth. Behold, there shall 
stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be 
far richer than they all, and by his strength through his riches 
he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia.” These three 
kings are the same as those represented by the three ribs in 
the mouth of the bear; and in the eighth chapter are again 
brought to view under the symbol of a ram. ‘‘ Then I lifted 
up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, there stood before the 
river a ram which had two horns; and the two horns were 
high ; and the higher” (Cyrus, the Mede,) “came up last. I 
saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and south¬ 
ward ; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was 
there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did 
according to his will and became great.” The interpretation 
Gabriel gave Daniel of the ram was this, as we have seen: 
“ The ram w r hich thou sawest having two horns are the kings 


124 


The Philosophy of 


of Media and Persia.” The two horns symbolize the two 
kings, and the ram itself the consolidated empire. It is the same 
kingdom as symbolized by the silver breast and arms of the 
great image. Thus we have the second head of the seven of the 
dragon, symbolized by its feet, whose feet were those of a bear. 
“ After this I beheld, and lo ! another, like a leopard, which 
had npon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had 
also four heads; and dominion was given to it.” Here are 
the symbols of the Grecian empire. The four wings and four 
heads represent the divisions of Alexander’s kingdom after 
his death. The interpretation given to the prophet was as 
follows: “And as I was considering, behold, an he goat 
came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and 
touched not the ground ; and the goat had a notable horn 
between his eyes, and he came to the ram that had the two 
horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran 
unto him in the fury of his power ; and I saw him come close 
unto the ram, and he was moved with color against him, and 
smote the ram and brake his two horns, and there was no 
power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down 
to the ground and stamped upon him; and there was none 
that could deliver the ram out of his hand, therefore the he 
goat waxed very great; and when he was strong the great 
horn was broken, and for it came up four notable ones toward 
the four winds of heaven.” 

Concerning this power, Gabriel says: “The rough goat is 
the king of Grecia, and the great horn that is between his 
eyes is the first king ; now that being broken, whereas four 
stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, 
but not in his power.” This is also brought out in the 
eleventh chapter, when Darius the Mede made his last grand 
attempt to crush the Grecian power.. “And a mighty king 
shall stand up (Alexander the Great) and shall rule with great 
dominion, and do according to his will; and when he shall 
stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided 
toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, 
nor according to his dominion which he ruled, for his king- 



God and the World. 


125 


dom shall be plucked up, even for others besides those.” 
Here we have two more of the seven heads of the dragon, 
which, according to John, was like a leopard, and, according 
to Daniel, was a leopard. Greece under Alexander, the nota¬ 
ble horn, is one, and in its divided state, under the dominion 
of the four horns, is two. This gives us four of the seven 
heads of the dragon. It will be noticed that in order to find 
the seven heads, we must only recognize the changes through 
which the four beasts of Daniel pass, in the assumption of 
different animal features and number of horns. In corrob¬ 
oration of this Divine history, given in advance. The ac¬ 
count of the battle between the he goat and the ram, as 
given by the prophet, and which gave the Greeks the dominion 
of the Persian empire, is thus furnished by Arian; see page 
97. We cannot but mark the great length of time required 
by this excellent historian to describe this battle, and the few 
lines God uses to do the same, simply the encounter between 
the two-horned ram and he-goat; but now we have four of 
the seven heads of the dragon, and the thread of the proph¬ 
ecy which connects Greece, named, with Rome not named. 
It will be necessary to repeat some parts of the prophecies 
already introduced, in doing which it seems as though no 
apology is needed from us, when it was considered important 
and done by Gabriel in conveying these truths to the prophet; 
indeed, it is this very principle of condensation, peculiar to 
inspired truth, crowding the important events of ages into a 
few verses, or pages, which renders it so difficult to conceive, 
and necessitating more study than to grasp every truth ever 
taught by mankind. By the use of a few symbols, God 
dashes down the history of a nation, which requires human 
authors volumes to elucidate. 


126 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER XI. 

EOME SUCCEEDS GEEECE. 

* Says the prophet, “After this I saw in the night visions, 
and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong 
exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth. It devoured and 
brake in pieces and stamped the residue with the feet of it; 
and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and 
it had ten horns; and I considered the horns, and behold, 
there came up among them another little horn, before whom 
there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots ; 
and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, 
and a mouth speaking great things.” Imperial Rome is here 
symbolized by the body of the beast, and is the fifth head of 
the dragon. Kingly Rome, or Rome ruled by the ten kings, 
under the emperors, represented as having received no king¬ 
dom as yet, but received power as kings one hour with the 
beast, is the sixth head of the dragon ; and these ten kings 
reigning after, having received their kingdoms, as here 
implied, by the expression “as yet,” is the seventh head of 
the dragon; and the little horn which came up among them 
is the symbol of the Papal hierarchy, hence we see that this 
fourth beast, signifying the fourth kingdom, is not only 
that which conquers the Grecian empire, but grows up out 
of one of its divisions, and is therefore, although not called 
by name, as certainly the Roman Empire as that Greece was 
subjugated by Rome and held its dominion. Here we have 


* It is no more certain that the Eoman Empire conquered the Grecian with 
all its dependencies, and bore rule over all the world, than that there were such 
empires; neither is the agreement of historians upon this subject more complete 
and perfect, than that the divine symbolization, presenting the march of 
universal empires, as perfectly connects Eome with Greece, in the succession. 



God and the World. 


127 


the seven heads of the great dragon; we must pay attention 
to the peculiarity of this power, which Gabriel said was 
“diverse from all kingdoms.’’ It appeared first simply as a 
‘ 4 little horn,” growing upon no kingly head, having no 
legitimate kingdom, but coming up among those symbolized 
by four heads of the fourth beast and the seventh of the great 
red dragon, at first a little horn, but finally holding the 
streightened reins of universal empire, not seeking like others 
to be a kingdom, but a religious hierarchy, claiming the 
rightful sway over all kingdoms and kings of the earth, 
even bearing rule in the place of God. This horn had eyes, 
like the eyes of man, denoting its sagacity in obtaining this 
wonderful power. It made war with the saints and shed the 
blood of the martyrs of Jesus for a thousand years, and, of 
course, did this in the Christian dispensation; and, as this 
work of blood has not been accomplished by any other power 
but Papacy, therefore, Papacy and the little horn are 
identical. It also came out of one of the divisions of the 
Grecian kingdom,, but it did not originate in Babylon and the 
eastern provinces, one of those divisions; neither in Asia 
Minor, another of them; nor in Egypt, the third ; and, there¬ 
fore, must have come out of the other, and the fourth of*the 
divisions of Alexander’s kingdom, which was that seized by 
Cassendre, one of his generals, and which was Macedonia and 
Greece. It was amid the center of this Grecian influence and 
power, as well as locality, that Constantine the Great, who 
gave birth to the little horn power, built Constantinople, call¬ 
ing it after his own name, and there planted the so-called 
Christian church, but really the little horn power, or the anti- 
Christian abomination of the scriptures, which trampled down 
people and kings, made war with the Christian church, wore 
out the saints of the Most High and prevailed against them 
until the Ancient of Days came, and the judgment of the great 
day was ushered in, or, is so to do. Here the Greek church 
was established and was the seat of the Pontiff for a long 
time, until the Latin bishops succeeded in having it changed 
to Home, soon after which Constantinople was taken by the 


128 


The Philosophy of 


Mahomedan power and held ever since, while the bishop, or 
patriarch, of the Greek chnrch resides at St. Petersburgh and 
with the Czar of all the Russias, is its supreme center and 
head. 

What can be more clear from this than that the pre¬ 
diction of the prophet, connecting Greece, the third of the 
four universal kingdoms, with Rome, the fourth, and the 
fourth, with the little horn ; mark, it is not that one of the four 
divisions of the Grecian empire was the little horn, but “ out 
of one of them came forth a little horn, etc.” 

Let us now return to Revelations xvii, v. 3, “So he 
carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness ; and I saw 
a woman sit upon a^scarlet colored beast, full of names of 
blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon her 
forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the great, 
the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth. And I 
saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with 
the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” Here are given the 
woman, and her work, so distinctly, that it is impossible not 
to identify her with the little horn, quoted by Jesus as “The 
abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet,” 
including Rome, with her pagan persecutions; mark, she is 
the mother of abominations ,” not only of the abomination 
that maketh desolate, but of the two forms of the religions 
of the four universal monarchies, Paganism and Papacy, 
reaching from ancient Babylon to the Roman empire, and, 
indeed, existing in one of its abominable forms till the end of 
the world. That this is the antiquity and turpitude of her 
crimes, is evident from what is found in her when the great 
inquisition sits, before which she is to be arraigned. “And 
great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto 
her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath, and in 
her was found the blood of all them that were slain upon the 
earth.” This is emphatically true, for the few that have been 
slain for being identified with the cause of God, in all ages, 
aside from those martyred by Paganism and Papacy, the 
latter taking the sword from the former, and wielding it, if 


God and the World. 


121 ) 


any tiling, with a more deadly fierceness against Christ's saints, 
are hardly worth notice; yes, in the crimsoned skirts of the 
woman sitting upon the scarlet colored beast, rendered such 
by her bloody work of slaying fifty millions of martyrs, 
was found the blood of all them that were slain upon the 
earth. The prophet Is. gives a short description of this mon¬ 
ster, thus: “For the people turneth not unto Him that 
smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of Hosts ; there¬ 
fore, the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail in one 
day. The ancient and honorable, he is the head ; and the 
prophet that teacheth his, he is the tail.” This work is thus 
expressed by the revelator: “And they overcame him (the 
dragon) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their 
testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death.” 

Those who are familiar with history know that the refined 
and polished religion of Chaldea, Media and Persia, Greece 
and Home, is characteristically denominated “the ancient 
religion.” This is especially conspicuous in the great contest 
between Paganism and Papacy, for the supremacy, in the 
.days of Constantine and Justinian ; corresponding to this 
sudden destruction predicted by Is. of both head and tail of 
the beast, in one day, is that given by the revelator. “There¬ 
fore shall her plagues come in one day — death, mourning and 
famine — and she shall be utterly destroyed, burned with fire, 
for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.” We have 
another scene of the dragon recorded in the twentieth chapter, 
so closely connected with this argument, that we here intro¬ 
duce it: “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, hav¬ 
ing the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his 
hand, and he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent (the 
ancient and honorable of Is.), which is the devil and satan, 
and bound him a thousand years.” The ninth verse of the 
twelfth chapter shows that the dragon was not the devil, the 
fallen angel, but being in such close affinity with him in his 
work, he is thus denominated: “And the dragon was cast 
out, that old serpent called the devil and satan” 

In this representative character, it comprehends ten distinct 
17 


130 


The Philosophy of 


civil and ecclesiastical forms of power. First, Chaldea ; 
second, Media and Persia; third, Greece, under the reign of 
Alexander, “the notable horn;” fourth, Greece, under the 
joint reign of the four kings; fifth, imperial Rome; sixth, 
kingly Rome, in its divided and transition state into the ten 
fragments, ending with the accession of Constantine to the 
imperial pnrple; seventh, kingly Rome having obtained a 
permanent existence in the eastern and western empires, 
reigning as Pagan kings, in defiance of the emperors; eighth, 
the two-horned lamb beast that came after the last head of the 
beast had received its deadly wonnd, and who interfered to give 
it life, which we hold to be France, nnder the reign of Napoleon 
the Third ; he is, also, the tail of the dragon, and the false 
prophet of Is., and the revelator, which we shall see more 
clearly hereafter; ninth, the woman sitting upon the scarlet- 
colored beast, whom the angel declared to be “that great city 
that reigneth over the kings of the earth ; ” first in its charac¬ 
ter as the Pagan abomination; and, lastly, in its Papal, the 
tenth, or little horn. 

Let ns briefly examine these in the order of their ful¬ 
fillment. First. The seven heads on the dragon; and, 
secondly, the two-horned beast that succeeds them. Third. 
The woman sitting on the dragon, and the prophetic periods 
connected with the events thus symbolize. In doing this, 
of course, we will follow the particular exposition given by 
the angel of Jesus to the revelator, recorded as above. We 
have already seen that the dragon with the seven heads and 
ten horns, incorporates all the animal features, or symbolic 
peculiarities of the four beasts of Daniel’s vision, and it there¬ 
fore comprehends the most prominent events of them all; 
but the fact that it was made the subject of an especial vision, 
and that, too, purporting to be a revelation, it would be 
reasonable to suppose that the inspirer of the prophets would 
communicate additional information in regard to the meaning 
of the symbols and figures thus employed, and by the inves¬ 
tigation it will be seen that the revelation given to John, of 
the four beasts of Daniel, not only describes the subdivisions 


God and the World. 


131 


of those beasts, but others and additional features which were 
to succeed them, and in the order of development embodies 
all the changes of form which the four beasts of the prophet 
were seen to undergo, down to the end of the world. The 
succession of these heads, horns and features, if we have not 
already seen, we shall, are so well defined that it seems almost 
impossible even for ordinary minds, who examine the subject 
carefully, not to understand their signification. This principle 
is in keeping with the declaration of the inspirer of the 
prophets regarding the manner pursued in communicating to 
man the coming history of the world. “ Line upon line, and 
precept upon precept, here a little and there a little.” God first 
gave Nebuchadnezzar a vision of what should come to pass, 
and revealed the meaning of it to Daniel the prophet, who 
gave the interpretation thereof to the Chaldean king. This 
great image mapped out, or gave the outlines of the four 
universal kingdoms, which were to succeed each other, and to 
be succeeded by the establishment of the Kingdom of God 
under the whole heaven, which the glorified saints were to 
take and possess forever, which could not, therefore, be the 
spiritual kingdom, or church, for the reason that this is not 
the everlasting possession of the saints, but is to be super¬ 
seded by this glorious and eternal kingdom. After this 
Daniel’s vision of the four beasts was given, signifying the 
same universal kingdoms, reaching in their successive history 
to the resurrection of the dead, the last great judgment, and 
the erection of Christ’s universal and eternal kingdom under 
the whole heaven, and, consequently, over the same territory 
occupied by the four preceding ones. But these symbolic 
animals had other unnatural features, representing important 
changes and events noted in the scriptures, and which were 
not shown in the king’s dream ; for instance, that which took 
place in the Grecian monarchy at the death of Alexander the 
Great, when the empire was divided among four of his most 
prominent generals, brought to view in the leopard beast of 
Daniel’s vision, and here prominently marked. “ After this 
I beheld, and lo ! another like a leopard, which had upon the 


132 


The Philosophy of 


back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four 
heads ; and dominion was given to it.” The four wings 
denoting the rapidity of the Grecian conquests. We also see 
by this explanation that a horn symbolizes a king, and heads 
signify kingdoms. With these remarks we are better pre¬ 
pared to examine and understand the last great revelation of 
these wonderful events, which furnishes the instruction and 
gives all the information which the God of the prophets has 
condescended to give the world concerning its past history 
and future destination. In the introduction of this, we deem 
it important to say a few things respecting the book of revela¬ 
tion itself. We remark in the first place, that this book is not 
sealed, while Daniel was directed to seal up his vision till the 
time of the end. To John was said : “ Seal not the sayings of 
this book,” but reveal them, conveying exactly the opposite 
idea. To assume that this book can never be understood, or 
that it is unimportant it should, is to charge its author with 
folly, while its name and introduction should forever set such 
questions at rest. “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which 
God gave unto Him to show unto His servants things which 
must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by 
His angel unto His servant John; who bare record of the 
word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of 
all things that he saw; blessed is he that readeth and they 
that hear the words of the prophecy of this book, and keep 
those things which are written therein, for the time is at 
hand.” The expressions, “ must shortly come to pass,” and 
“ the time is at hand,” are shown by the development of the 
events it records, to mean that the time is at hand when they 
are to begin to come to pass, and so succeed each other till all 
are fulfilled. The book closes thus: “I, Jesus, have sent 
My angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I 
am the root and offspring of David, the bright and the morn¬ 
ing star; and the spirit and the bride say, Come, let him 
that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take the 
water of life freely. For I testify unto every man that 
lieareth the words of the prophecy of this book: if any man 


God and the World. 


133 


shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the 
plagues that are written in this book ; and if any man shall 
take away from the words of the prophecy of this book, God 
shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of 
the holy city, and from the things which are written in this 
book. He which testifieth these things saith surely, I come 
quickly: amen, even so, come Lord Jesus.” 

In these passages we have vividly portrayed the last grand 
effort of God to give the world, in advance, its history and 
destiny, originating with the Great God himself, directly com¬ 
municated to Jesus Christ, and from Him to His angel, who 
conveyed the message to John on the isle that is called 
Patmos, and who was instructed to bear the record to the 
churches, and to pronounce a blessing on those who hear the 
words of this prophecy, and keep the sayings which are writ¬ 
ten therein, all of which would be meaningless on the sup¬ 
position that the book was never to be understood, and 
especially when it is considered that the most of its teachings 
relate to the national and religious events of the present world. 
In addition to this, here is a most solemn admonition pro¬ 
nounced against taking away or adding to tlie words of the 
prophecy of this book, which could not be done unless it was 
assumed to be understood ; this is sometimes done by giving 
it an interpretation which is not in harmony with the Scrip¬ 
tures of the prophets, of which it purports to be a revelation. 
This fearful responsibility is sometimes incurred by men 
declaring it to be a highly wrought poetic effusion, a product 
of inconsiderate rapture, a kind of fancy picturing. Fearful 
disposition for a feeble and ignorant mortal to make of a book 
which cost the God of Infinite Wisdom more than four 
thousand years of meditation and effort to give in mercy to a 
ruined race. 

We have been shocked at another course pursued by some, 
which could have no other tendency than to bring this great 
and fearful production into ridicule and contempt, by sarcas¬ 
tically characterizing it as an account of horns, heads, tails, 
etc., which are figures in the conception of God to simplify 


134 


The Philosophy of 


Ills thoughts and ideas to the comprehension of man’s igno¬ 
rance, but failing to profit by it, through a mere want of 
investigation, their groveling minds go no higher toward the 
conception of these truths, than though they were reading 
about a slaughtering establishment. We hear commentators, 
in their introduction, declare in regard to the book of revela¬ 
tion, that they do not understand it, and yet proceed to give 
an interpretation of its entire teachings, which, of course, is 
nothing but human exposition, and, as might be expected, 
abounding with the grossest absurdities, giving meanings of 
things which they do not profess to understand ; but we have 
no more disposition to attempt a refutation of these errors, 
than to follow the example of their authors, and we fully sub¬ 
scribe to the sentiment, “ To the law and to the testimony ; if 
they speak not according to this word, it is because there is 
no light in them.” What would be thought of an author who 
undertook to write the history of a nation, employing lan¬ 
guage and figures unexplained, and presenting the whole in 
such an unintelligible garb, that the closest application and 
mature study would fail to decipher its meaning; would he 
not be supposed either to be a mental imbecile, or that he had 
designed to deceive his readers % And if the book of revela¬ 
tion, whose very name means to uncover and make things 
manifest, is of this character, how can such reflections fail to 
apply to its author ? That a being of infinite wisdom should 
furnish the world with a book, containing its history of the 
past and future, from the time in which it was given, the 
object being declared to be to “ show unto Ms servants the 
things which was, and which is, and which is to come,” and 
yet that its teachings were involved in such profound mystery, 
that these (his servants) could never penetrate them, would he 
not merit the reflection that he designed to be misunderstood ? 
But it is unpardonable to consume time upon such reflections, 
and we will only remark that the entire misapprehension of 
the scope and teachings of this book, especially in the present 
age of the world, is to be attributed to a want of careful and 
impartial investigation; an understanding of the events, 


God and the World. 


135 


symbolized by the four beasts of the prophet, and explained 
by the revelation, occupies more than half of the book, and, 
therefore, to comprehend their meaning is to understand it. 
That our position in relation to this book cannot be questioned, 
from Bible authority, we here introduce two passages : Deut. 
xxix, 29.—■“ The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; 
but those things which are revealed belong unto us, and to 
our children, forever.” Rom. xv, 4.—“ For whatsoever things 
were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that 
we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might 
have hope.” 


The Philosophy of 


130 


CHAPTER XIII. 

THE TRANSITION OF PAGAN TO PAPAL ROME. 

We have already seen that each successive vision of these 
events contains additional information, and as we have quoted 
those passages in full, descriptive of the beast with the seven 
heads and ten horns, we need now only consider the explana¬ 
tion, nature and application of the symbols, as furnished by 
the revelator himself. When John saw this beast, the woman 
which it carried, and heard her name, and that she was 
drunken with the blood of the saints, and the martyrs of 
Jesus, it was marvelous. Then said the angel unto him: 
“ Wherefore did’st thou marvel ? I will tell thee the mystery 
of the woman, and the beast that carrieth her, which hath the 
seven heads and ten horns, and here is the mind that hath 
wisdom, the seven heads are seven mountains on which 
the woman sitteth.” (That the seven mountains are king¬ 
doms, is shown by the last verse in the chapter: “And the 
woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth 
over the kings of the earth.”) Tenth verse: “ And there are 
seven kings; five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet 
come ; and when he cometh he must continue a short space.” 
Verse 12: “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten 
kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive 
power as kings one hour with the beast; these have one mind, 
and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These 
shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome 
them; for He is Lord of Lords, and King of Kings ; and they 
that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful, and 
He saith unto me, the waters which thou sawest where the 
whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations and 
tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the 


God and the World . 


137 

beast, these shall hate the whore and shall make her desolate 
and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire, for 
God hath put in their hearts to fulfill His will, and to agree, 
and to give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of 
God shall be fulfilled.” 

The first point here to which we wish to direct attention is 
that of the seven kingdoms of which John was informed five 
had then fallen. When the Book of Revelation, therefore, 
was written, five of the kingdoms, represented by the seven 
heads of the dragon, had passed away. The first of these 
was that symbolized by the mouth of the lion, and the first 
seen by Daniel was a lion. The second had the feet of a bear 
on the dragon John saw, and the second seen by the prophet 
was a bear. The third seen by John was like a leopard, and 
by Daniel it was a leopard. The fourth head was symbolized 
by the four wings and four heads, on the leopard, represent¬ 
ing Greece divided. The fifth is the beast called the dragon, 
and corresponds with the great and terrible beast of Daniel, 
which also had ten horns, but before this division it was 
imperial Rome. These were the five heads which John was 
informed ‘ ‘ had fallen. 5 ’ 

It must be remembered that it was in the year 96, A. D., 
that John received the revelation, and that then the consoli¬ 
dated Roman Empire had passed away, being divided not 
only into eastern and western, but into various other frag¬ 
ments, or kingdoms, struggling with the emperors for inde¬ 
pendent existence. In corroboration of this, we quote a 
passage from the Treasury of History, vol. 1, p. 43, which 
gives us a condensed account of the broken and transition 
state of the empire at this period. The language used 
descriptive of the sixth head, which John was told u now is ;” 
and also in the twelfth verse, gives a forcible picture of the 
Roman empire after the passing away of the Augustian age. 
“ And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which 
have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings 
one hour with the beast.” The historic page is this: “In 
the year 67, A. D., the memorable war with the Jews com- 
18 


138 


The Philosophy of 


menced, which, though it lasted three years, ended in the total 
destruction of the city and nation, after enduring all the 
horrors of war, carried on by each party with sanguinary 
fury. The decline of imperial Rome was fast approaching, 
for although Antoninus, surnamed the pious, obtained the 
regard of his subjects and the respect of foreigners, living in 
peace during the whole of his reign, yet, scarcely had Marcus 
Aurelius Antoninus succeeded to the throne, before the Ger¬ 
manic tribes united, as in the time of Marius, and poured in 
their warlike hordes upon Italy; and, while they grew more 
and more formidable, famine and pestilence ravaged many of 
the Roman provinces. From this time repeated incursions of 
hardy adventurers from the north of Europe, under various 
names, took place ; though often beaten, they renewed their 
attempts with a degree of courage and perseverance that 
required all the energy and superior discipline of the Roman 
legions to overcome. From the death of Aurelius to the 
reign of Dioclesian, many of the Roman emperors were mere 
sensualists ; there were, however, some splendid exceptions, 
and by the warlike genius of such, the incursions of the bar¬ 
barians were from time to time arrested. The Romans had 
also, for a long period, met with a most powerful adversary in 
the Persians; and when, in 260, the emperor Yalerian was 
defeated and taken prisoner by them, the empire seemed to be 
hastening to utter and irremediable destruction; while Gal- 
lienus, the son of Yalerian, and his associate in power, was 
reveling in luxury at Rome, numerous claimants of the 
imperial dignity arose in the dilferent provinces; these were 
designated the “ thirty tyrants.” Their dominion was, how¬ 
ever, not of long duration, and on the death of Gallienus, who 
was succeeded by Claudius, and who had the merit of deliver¬ 
ing Italy from the Goths. After him came Aurelian, who 
introduced order into the state, restored internal tranquillity, 
and defeated his enemies, both in Europe and Asia. Under 
Tacitus, Probus and Carus the empire was in a manner 
restored to its former lustre; but the barbarians , still pressed 
onward, and when the government fell into the hands of Dio- 


God and the World. 


139 


clesian, lie changed its form, sharing the imperial dignity with 
Maximinian, to whom he committed the west, while he ruled 
in the east. In this manner was the government administered 
till the days of Constantine. Here we see the Pagan kings 
warring against the empire for independent existence, but as 
yet unable to obtain it, just as the condition of the sixth head 
of the dragon is represented as being in when John was given 
the book of Revelations. “The ten horns which thou sawest 
upon the beast are ten kings which have received no kingdom 
as yet, but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.” 
The expression, c ‘have received no kingdom as yet” implies that 
they would receive it in the future, and when they did it would 
be the seventh head, and which was only to continue a short 
space. This is the head upon which the ten horns were, and 
is wounded to death by Papacy, or the little horn. 

Although the sixth head of the dragon had the shortest life 
of any of the seven, measured by the figurative expression 
“one hour,” yet in that time these Pagan kings, from Hero 
to Dioclesian, the Christian church was martyred almost 
to extermination, so that this last-named emperor had a medal 
struck bearing the inscription, ‘ ‘Homine Christanorum deleto,” 
signifying that the name of Christians had been extinguished. 
It must be remembered that the name of the woman that sat 
upon the seven-headed, scarlet-colored beast was not only 
Babylon, which signifies mixture, confusion, and, in this case, 
Christ with Belial, but that she was the mother of abomina¬ 
tions, embracing Paganism and Papacy; and the expression, 
“they received power one hour with the beast,” more particu¬ 
larly the last of these sentences, is strikingly significant. The 
beast now is not the empire, but the kingly head upon which is 
the ten horns. These foreign kings were not only intent on the 
dismemberment of the empire, but equally so on the mainten¬ 
ance of their ancient religion, and as this could only be accom¬ 
plished by the extinguishment of Christianity, to which many 
of the emperors were committed, therefore during the contest 
these kings only received power as kings with the beast, but 
the ten kings which were here struggling with the emperors 


140 


The Philosophy of 


for distinctive existence as kings in reality, now obtain that 
power, and become permanently established. This event is 
thus brought to view. ‘ ‘And the other (which is the seventh, is 
not yet come) and when he cometh he must continue a short 
space.” These (ten kings) have one mind, and shall give their 
power and strength unto the beast. Mark, the revelator now 
talks of what shall be, not, as just before, of what is, but that 
they shall give their power, etc. They had now succeeded in 
dividing the empire among themselves ; their names we have 
already mentioned. 


God and the World. 


141 


CHAPTER XIY. 

THE WOUNDING TO DEATH OF THE SEVENTH HEAD OF THE 

DKAGON. 

This was the condition of the empire when Constantine 
assumed the purple. The “short space ” which this head was 
to continue, was about two hundred years, reaching from 
Constantine to Justinian. We find, by reference to other 
passages where it is spoken of, that this agreement was partly 
voluntary and partly compulsory ; the truth taught, is, that the 
ten pagan kings gave up their independent power which 
they had obtained, as above, both civil and religious, to Papacy, 
the little horn, which thus “waxed exceeding great,” and 
which enabled it to reach those gigantic proportions, thus 
described by the revelator: “The woman which thou sawest 
(on the scarlet-colored beast) is that great city which reigneth 
over the kings of the earth. The kings were not driven from 
their throne, but were servilely subjected to this monstrous 
hierarchy. The “ little horn,” therefore, is the symbol of the 
civil and ecclesiastical power of Rome. In its contest with 
the Pagan kings, on the seventh head, it was wounded to death, 
and waxed exceeding great by the acquisition of the power 
and strength of all the ten kings. It is even represented as 
standing up against the prince of the host (the emperor of 
Rome). At the accession of Constantine, to the empire, he 
immediately put a stop to the persecution of Christians, and 
indeed professed Christianity himself; not only did he protect 
Christians, but brought all his power to consummate the over- 
t 1 row of the old Pagan religion of the nation, and succeeded in 
making Christianity the religion of the empire, or, more 
properly speaking, Papacy. No Pagan subject could hold 
office in the State. These kingdoms were either induced or 
uompelled to abandon Paganism, and embrace Christianity, 


142 


The Philosophy of 


within the period in which Constantine became emperor, and 
the death of Justinian, or very shortly after. Belisarius, 
Justinian’s most prominent general, conquered three of these 
in one campaign. The nature of this subjugation was such, 
that they were not only compelled to abandon their religion 
and embrace Christianity, but to acknowledge the supreme 
power of the Pope or Pontiff as a civil ruler. The prophet 
predicts this event thus, Dan., 7th chapter, and elsewhere in the 
book: “I considered the horns and behold, there came up 
among them another little horn, before whom there were three 
of the first horns plucked up by the roots, and behold, in this 
horn were eyes like the eyes of man and a mouth speaking 
great things; then says he, I would know the truth of the 
fourth beast and of the ten horns that were in his head, and of 
the other which came up (little horn), and before whom three 
fell; even of that horn that had eyes and a mouth that spake 
very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows: 
I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and pre¬ 
vailed against them, until the ancient of days came and judg¬ 
ment was given to the saints of the Most High ; and the time 
came that the saints possessed the kingdom ; thus he said the 
fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which 
shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole 
earth, and shall tread it down and break it in pieces; and the 
ten horns, out of his kingdom, are ten kings that shall arise ; 
and another shall rise after them, and he shall be diverse from 
the first, and he shall subdue three Icings , and he shall think to 
change times and laws, and they shall be given into his hands 
until a time, times and the dividing of time ; but the judg¬ 
ment shall sit and they shall take away his dominion to con¬ 
sume and to destroy it unto the end.” This period of time, 
times and a-half is 1,260 years, comprehending the duration of 
the civil power, or dominion of the little horn. The Pope, 
therefore, has the power to make war, which is only the pre¬ 
rogative of a temporal prince, and constitutes him, as well the 
head of the State as of the Church during this period ; but mark 
what is said of the relation these ten kings sustain to the 


God and the World . 


143 


power which had once subjugated them. But the judgment 
shall sit (his judgment), and they (these kings) shall sit in 
judgment and take away his dominion and destroy it unto the 
end, the very end, the great and last judgment, the assize “of 
the Ancient of Days.” 

In the year 588 the Pope was declared to be Christ’s vice¬ 
gerent on earth, which title, as the Catholics interpret it, gives 
him the sword of universal dominion over empires and t king¬ 
doms, as well as that of universal bishop, and, consequently, 
no king or priest has any right to act independent of his wishes, 
and if he is faithful to the popedom he is bound to bring all 
power on earth, religious and civil, into the most servile sub¬ 
jection to his will; and the only reason why any opposition to 
this assumption is tolerated is the lack of power and not of dis¬ 
position on the part of the Papal Church. That this claim of 
Popery is unmodified, and is as arrogantly set forth at the pres¬ 
ent day as in any period of its history, is manifest from what 
is just now transpiring in relation to the Ecumenical Council, 
which the following shows, the Eastern Patriarchs and Pius 
IX. The spirited response given by the Patriarch of Con¬ 
stantinople to the Pope’s invitation to attend the great Ecu¬ 
menical Council is so familiar that we need not introduce the 
document of the Pope, but we refer here to the recent effort 
by “ His Holiness” to secure the attendance of the Patriarch 
of Alexandria, which so fully vindicates our position that we 
introduce what was said between the Roman Catholic bishop 
and the Patriarch. The summons was in the precise language 
of that sent to Constantinople, but in order that it might be 
more certain of success, it was forwarded by especial messen¬ 
gers of high position in the Romish Church. The following 
is the colloquy which transpired at the official interview: 
“ Roman Catholic Bishop. Most venerable, I am commanded 
to hand you a brief, inviting the occupant of this patriarchial 
throne to the Ecumenical Council. Patriarch. Do the contents 
of the brief agree with those of the Encyclical of the most 
blessed Pope of old Rome ? Bishop. They do. Patriarch. 
The desire of ‘ His Holiness’ for the union of all the churches 


144 


The Philosophy of 


of Christ is excellent. We, too, of this ancient apostolic and 
glorions throne of St. Mark have always offered up fervent 
prayers for the same end, but here the community between us 
ends ; all beyond is delusion and discord. We cannot accept 
this brief for three reasons. First. It denies the equality which 
exists among the holy churches of God, and abolishes their 
•independence , proclaiming that Rome holds sway over other 
churches equally self-governing. Secondly. The Pope gives 
us to understand that salvation is to be obtained exclusively in 
Rome, whereas the energy of divine grace has operated and 
does operate throughout the globe. In the third place, the 
Pope intimates that he assembles the Council on the festival o* 
the immaculate conception, a dogma wholly unknown to the 
church, a recent innovation and by no means a solitary one. 
But why pursue the subject further ? If the Holy Pope of 
old Rome sincerely desires the pacification and unity of the 
whole church of Christ, then let him, as a brother, and as an 
equal among equals, put himself in communication with the 
other holy Patriarchs, and with them take counsel respecting 
the methods best calculated to secure the end in view, although 
the best of all methods would be to adopt the course to which 
history points, and to approximate the modern institutions of 
Rome to those of more primitive times ; but not acting on this 
principle, his Holiness will labor in vain, and only further 
widen the breach which already separates us. Bishop. The 
Holy Father summons this council as head and sovereign over 
the church and successor of the blessed apostle Peter ; but I 
am not come to discuss. Patriarch. Beit so ; we do not yield 
to such pretensions, which are at variance with the received 
teachings of the church of which Christ only is the head. 
Bishop. But you know that your church is the See of the 
Apostle Mark, who was consecrated Bishop of Alexandria by 
the blessed Peter ; besides, did not the great Athanasius appeal 
to Rome % Patriarch. If the Bishop of Rome boasts of St. 
Peter, he of Antioch has a still better right to do so, Peter 
having taught and acted as bishop there before he did at 
Rome. The consecration of St. Mark by Peter makes no dif- 


God and the World. 


145 


ference, for all the apostles were equal in authority and dig 
nity. Again, if Athanasius appealed to the Bishop of Home, it 
was when he was under persecution, and as a suffering brother 
to one able to help him, not to a superior. Bishop. For such 
an end as unity should you not be a little less precise, and not 
stand so much on your dignity. Patriarch. No ; this is not 
a question of form, but of a most important principle. But, 
not to prolong this discussion, let me repeat, once for all, that 
as this new attempt on the part of his Holiness, the Pope, has 
miscarried, it is necessary, if he sincerely desires the unity of 
the universal church, that he should write to the Patriarchs 
individually, and, acting in concert, endeavor to come to an 
understanding with them respecting the course to be adopted, 
renouncing every idea of domination and every dogma on 
which opinions may clash in the church. By so doing his 
efforts may, perchance, be crowned with some degree of suc¬ 
cess.” The papal messengers returned bearing with them the 
formal refusal of the Patriarch. Here is Papacy, and is she 
not as arrogant as ever? The revelator thus graphically 
describes this power: “The woman which thou sawest is that 
great city that reigneth over the kings of the earth.” At the 
expiration of this period these kings sit in judgment upon her 
assumptions, and strip her of her power and repudiate her 
domination. “They shall agree and give their power and 
strength unto the beast until the words of God shall be ful¬ 
filled.” The words thus to be fulfilled were those just quoted 
from Daniel’s prophecy, predicting this very judgment of the 
Papal kings, eventuating in the destruction of her temporal 
power. “These shall hate the whore and strip her naked, and 
shall burn her with fire (‘consume her,’ Daniel says), for God 
hath put into their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree and 
give their power and strength unto the beast, until the words 
of God shall be fulfilled.” They gave the horn their own 
power and strength, which she wielded for the long period of 
1260 years, at the end of which they were to turn against her 
to such an extent as to take it again into their own hands, leav¬ 
ing her stripped, naked and helpless, to make war as a temporal 
19 


146 


The Philosophy of 


power. This period commenced, as we have said, 588, and 
ended 1848, the very year, as we shall see, in which the Pope 
lost his temporal power, and, according to prophecy, never 
more to regain it. The fulfillment of this requires, that, at the 
expiration of this prophetic period, all the catholic kingdoms 
of the earth shall resume their independence of the civil domin¬ 
ion of Rome’s authority; and this is to be their condition from 
that time, which we put as commencing in 1848, until the end 
of the world, at which the same kings, the revelator declares, 
“ shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome 
them, for he (and not the Pope) is Lord of lords and King of 
kings.” 

This is the same event which the prophet says shall take 
place while the ten toes of the image exist, representing these 
kingdoms. “In the days of these kings shall the G-od of 
heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed,” 
and which shall dash all these kingdoms to pieces together ; or 
shall dash them in pieces as the vessels of a potter,” as in 
the 2d Ps. 


God and the World. 


147 


CHAPTER XV. 

NAPOLEON THE THIRD, THE LAMB-BEAST. 

The assumption of tlie original power of tlie ten kings, so 
long held by the Popes, and when first obtained, wounded the 
kingly head of the dragon, symbolizing them to death, is the 
healing again of that head. “ I beheld, as it were, one of 
his heads wounded to death, and his deadly wound was 
healed.” How by turning again to the 13th chapter, we shall 
find that after these seven heads had finished up the history 
and fulfilled the prophecy in their relations with the Popedom, 
another power, assuming civil relations with the Papacy, came 
upon the theater of action and filled up the last remaining 
events, and which, as we shall see, ushers in the grand winding- 
up scenes of the world’s destiny. This lamb-beast has been 
supposed to symbolize Napoleon the First, but we think it 
means Napoleon the Third. There were forcible reasons for 
applying it to the First, until the Third appeared, and so per¬ 
fectly fulfilling the history drawn by the God of the prophets 
that the mistake is easy to be appreciated, and it seems to us 
that every one who carefully weighs the subject can say with 
Peter, in reference to the descent of the Holy Ghost according 
to the prediction of the prophet Joel: “This is it,” not that it 
resembles it, but positively “ This is it, which was spoken of 
by the prophet Joel. ” “ And I beheld another beast coming up 
out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he 
spake as a dragon, and he exerciseth all the power of the first 
beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell 
therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was 
healed ; and he doth great wonders, so that he maketh fire 
come down from heaven on earth in the sight of men, and 
deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those 


148 


The Philosophy of 


miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; 
saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make 
an image to the beast, which had the wound by the sword and 
did live ; and he had power to give life unto the image of the 
beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause 
that as many as would not worship the image of the beast 
should be killed, and he causetli all, both small and great, rich 
and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, 
or in their foreheads; and that no man might buy or sell, save 
he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number 
of his name; here is wisdom, let him that hath understanding 
count the number of his name, for it is the number of a man ; 
and his number is six hundred three-score and six.” 

By the expression “It is the number of a man” we learn 
that this beast is the symbol of a man. At the inauguration 
of this two-horned lamb-beast, we have the description of 
Popery represented at that time by the reigning Pope, thus 
given : “He that leadeth into captivity, shall go into captivity ; 
he that killeth with the sword, must be killed with the sword ; 
here is the patience and the faith of the saints,” which is as 
much as to have said to the saints, have patience and look for 
the transpiration of these events, as they are among the last 
of the world’s history, and are connected with the abomination 
of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet, and to which 
Christ thus directs the eye of the church: “When ye shall 
see all these things come to pass, then lift up your heads and 
rejoice, for your redemption is nigh.” If the Popedom, repre¬ 
sented at this time by Pius IX, who has led the Church into 
captivity, of imprisonment, banishment and death, is here 
designated, then we should find that he himself had now gone 
into captivity. In confirmation of this view, we all remember 
how that in 1848, at the outbursting of the people of Europe, 
demanding of their princes constitutional government, the 
Pope became alarmed, and, without waiting to be driven from 
the Papal chair, took the inititative and fled from Rome to 
Naples in disguise, when, as by magic, Messina was elected 
provisional president of the new “Roman republic,” and 



God and the World. 


149 


General Garabaldi attacked the garrison of the city, defeating 
it and obtaining possession. The Pope, now in banishment, 
issued a mandate to all the Catholic kingdoms of Europe to 
restore him to his seat and authority, the result being that not 
one acted in accordance with it. Here we find Pope Pius the 
IX an exile in captivity, and with the most astonishing 
accuracy fulfilling the. prediction “He that leadetli into 
captivity shall go into captivity;” he was not driven away 
but went of his own accord; his Roman subjects taking the 
advantage of his absence established a republic, which made 
him just as much a captive in exile as though he had been 
banished, and just as fatally was his temporal power lost, and 
we think never to be regained, as though he had ’ been killed, 
and no other Pope ever elected, proving, too, that the govern¬ 
ment of the Popes is incompatible with republics. 

This history also demonstrated another important feature in 
the fulfillment of this prophecy, which is, that the little horn 
beast, who had reigned over the kings of the earth, had now 
lost that power; they had once agreed, and had given their 
power and strength unto the beast, but had now taken it again. 
The time was when all the kings of Europe would have flew 
to arms, in servile obedience to such a command, but now the 
whole system of reign and subjection between these princes 
had changed, and not a Catholic kingdom obeyed the voice of 
the great center of Papal authority; hence, also, we learn that 
the words of God relating to these events are fulfilled. It is 
true, however, that although none of these kingdoms under¬ 
took the work of reseating the Pope, France a republic, with 
Sardinia, did accomplish the work, and this work is that of a 
power symbolized by the lamb-beast. Let us now see what 
it said and did in relation to the Popedom, and if we have cor¬ 
rectly applied the prophecy to Napoleon, then we shall find 
that its prominent features will correspond with his words and 
acts relative to the Pope. “I beheld another beast coming up 
out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he 
spake as a dragon.” Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was elected 
the first president of the French republic, which Lamartine 


150 


The Philosophy of 


had held provisionally from the flight of Louis Phillippe. 
Charles Albert, king of Sardinia, and father of Victor Emman¬ 
uel, had now left his throne and had assumed the command 
of the Italian army of freedom, having the popular sentiment 
of the people with him. Here we have France, a republic, and 
Sardinia substantially the same, with its king heading the 
republican movements, forcibly represented as coming up out 
of the earth , not from heaven (a religious source), but from 
among the people, being like a lamb with two horns. The 
lamb symbolizes the republics, and the horns the two first 
leaders, both of which, however, lost their lamb-like charac¬ 
ter and became kings, and that of France, the most prominent 
one, an emperor, and “ spake as a dragon.” 

This symbolization, developing animal features, is in perfect 
harmony with every vision of similar import, either in the 
prophecies or revelation, which is that the first of the animal 
seen and described signifies the first part of the government it 
represents; accordingly it is said, “The beast had two horns 
like a lamb and spake as a dragon.” It was a lamb first and 
a dragon afterward. It should be observed that the work 
accomplished by the power here brought to view is a unit. 
It is finally that of but one beast, and the two kings cooperate 
in its achievement, “he spake as a dragon.” Letusnowpay 
attention to what he says and does. First. He exerciseth all 
the powers of the dragon having the seventh head and ten 
horns, which had been wounded to death, but whose deadly 
wound was now being healed, shown by these kings now refus¬ 
ing compliance with the demand of the Pope ; or, to drop the 
figure, France, a republic, assumes and exerciseth all the 
power of the Catholic kings of Europe in their relation with 
the Papacy, which they had once done by giving it its original 
power and domination, but of which they had now divested 
it. The power of the ten kings, which had been absorbed 
and wielded by the little horn, or Papacy, at first, had now 
been resumed by those kings and taken from the Popes ; con¬ 
sequently this head that had been wounded to death 1260 years 
before, now had its deadly wound healed, and it is this very 


God and the World. 


151 

head or kings to whom Napoleon appealed for assistance in res¬ 
toring the Pope, but who refused, and therefore he did it alone. 
“He exercisetli all the power of the first beast before him.” 
They made the Pope a temporal ruler originally, and Bona¬ 
parte does the same work, at least in appearance, by restoring 
it to him. We say apparently, because the real power Napo¬ 
leon holds himself, and thus, “He causetlithe earth and them 
which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly 
wound was healed.” 

The next thing claiming our attention is, that though the 
beast was like a lamb, yet it spake as a dragon. This beast 
symbolizes two of the greatest extremes, a lamb and a great 
and terrible beast, meeting in one symbol, which signifies the 
greatest liberty and the greatest despotism, and which can only 
have its fulfillment in this age in the history of Napoleon the 
Third. It must be distinctly understood, and therefore, in but 
slightly varied circumstances, we repeat, that* it was in the 
latter part of the fifth century that the dragon, with its seventh 
head, on which was the ten horns, existed. The other six, hav¬ 
ing accomplished their destination, had passed away, and also 
that it was this head, with its ten horns, which was wounded 
to death by the little horn power ; or, literally, it was the ten 
kingdoms, the divisions of the Roman empire, with their 
Pagan religion, which were conquered by the Papacy, and 
when thus subjugated were the Catholic kingdoms of Europe, 
and under the most absolute domination of the Popes during 
the long night of the “ dark ages.” In the sixteenth century 
Henry the Eighth was the first to throw it off, and from which 
time England assumed her independence. From that period 
till 1848 all of those kingdoms followed her example, not 
indeed in becoming Protestant, but in freeing themselves from 
the temporal power of Papacy. These latter have no objec¬ 
tions against the Pope’s being head of the church, but he 
must no more be the head of their states. The last of those 
which dissolved its alliance with the Pope was Austria, that is, 
formally, for she did it virtually in 1848, by her refusal to 
assist in the work of reseating the exiled Pope. It is true 


152 


The Philosophy of 


that Francis Joseph was a loyal subject of the Pope, but he 
could no longer hold his people to such subjection. These 
kings have generally been compelled to this course by their 
subjects seeking disenthrallment and civil liberty. 

We quote the following, headed ‘ ‘Austria and Rome, ’ ’ which 
gives a full explanation of this event: “ The abrogation of the 

concordat; the Emperor of Austria seeks and obtains the 
forgiveness of the Pope. Rome, May 30, 1868. Correspon¬ 
dence of the Gazette. Monsignor Haynald, Archbishop of 
Koloiza, in Hungary, the friend and confidant of the Emperor 
of Austria, recently arrived here with an autograph letter 
from his Imperial Majesty to the Pope, and charged with a 
secret mission. Some time ago the Emperor, through Count 
Garvelle, promised the Holy Father that he would withhold 
his sanction from the new religious laws passed by the Aus¬ 
trian Chambers, and this letter informs his Holiness that he has 
been obliged to give way on the question, as the public feeling 
it excited left him no alternative but abdication. The object 
of the Archbishop of Koloiza was to reconcile the Pope to this 
defection, and he has done his best in the matter, having had 
several inter vie w& with the Holy Father, and pleaded his cause 
with great earnestness. The eloquent prelate presented to His 
Holiness the evils which would result from the Emperor’s 
abdication, dwelling particularly on the regency involved by 
the minority of his son, and pointing out the uncontrolled 
power that would thus be vested in hostile hands, and entreated 
the Holy Father not only to remit the Emperor’s promise, but 
to give him, in this emergency, the benefit of that enlighen- 
ment which he received from heaven. 

The piety and submission of the descendant of Rudolph of 
Ilapsburg quite overcame the Pope, and the Archbishop is 
now carrying to Vienna an autograph letter from His Holiness, 
expressing the deepest commiseration for the pitiable situation 
of the Emperor, and stating that the Pope regards him as 
deprived of liberty and not responsible for the acts he is 
obliged to do; consequently he is not bound by them,, and 
may be at peace with his conscience; provided he determines 


God and the World. 


153 


to take advantage of the first opportunity to abrogate such of 
the decrees as are contrary to the laws of God and the Church. 
(These decrees which the Pope declares contrary to the laws 
of God and the Church are civil and religious liberty, not only 
in Austria and Pome but also in America.) The Archbishop 
was so elated with his success that he announced it to the 
Emperor, by telegraph, before he left Pome. 

Thus did Austria resume its independence of the Papal 
power of Pome. Napoleon spake and acted in relation to 
the Pope j ust as the dragon did, when it gave it its original 
power and authority, by his interference in the matter of his 
restoration. “ Come ” said he to the beast that had the wound 
by the sword and did live, “let us make an image to the 
beast,” or, addressing the Catholic kingdoms of Europe, 
Napoleon said, “Come and assist me, and I will make an 
image to the beast, that is, I will make Popery appear to be 
what it is not. We ha/ve all taken our power out of Papal 
hands, to which I do not object; thus she is stripped naked, 
and your deadly wound which she once inflicted is healed, 
and I do not propose to give it any real power, for I mean to 
hold the power in my own hands; but let us make something 
that looks like the princely power of the Pope, for I am 
determined to make an image to it if I act all alone ; ” thus he 
did. And he had power to give life unto the image of the 
beast, and cause that as many as would not worship the image 
of the beast should be killed. This had its fulfillment in 1848 
when Napoleon sent his army to Pome, overthrowing the 
republic, reseating the Pope, and killing the republicans of 
Pome who refused to submit to this new Franco-papal 
imposition. It is well known that after the reaction of the 
European despots, proving false to their promises and consti¬ 
tutional oaths in giving the people liberty, led on by the 
treacherous Napoleon, that the Pope repeatedly requested him 
to withdraw the French army of occupation from Rome and 
give the reins of government into his hands as he held them 
before, but he as often refused to comply. Pope Pius seemed 
blind to the nature of the circumstances surrounding him and 
failed to comprehend the fact , that the Italian people would 


154 


The Philosophy of 


never again peaceably submit to his reign, which Napoleon 
clearly saw, and therefore kept his soldiers in Home until the 
year 1867, when there seemed to be such a pressure brought to 
bear upon him from the victories of Prussia, culminating at 
Saclowa, the failure of his Mexican campaign and the press of 
England and the United States, together with the urgent 
appeals of the Pope, that he consented to the withdrawal of 
the French troops, and the almost immediate result was that 
the Italians, led on by their distinguished general, Grarabaldi, 
marched against Pome, and if France had not again interposed 
and compelled Sardinia to assist her, no one doubts but that 
they would have succeeded in the overthrow of the powerless 
Popedom. As it was, the attempt showed the bitter hostility 
of the Catholics of Italy to the temporal power of the Pope, 
in every part of the country through which the army of 
Liberation marched toward Pome there was one continuous 
ovation, gathering new accessions of volunteers as it advanced ; 
the Pope had no power to meet the emergency; this was in the 
hands of Napoleon and he exercised it. He had power, not 
only to give life unto the image of the beast, but to kill those 
who warred against it. Here again is his deceptive policy; 
he sent his army under the pretense of giving the people of 
Italy the government they wished and best suited for them, and 
then brutally killed them ; he not only compelled the French 
nation, but Sardinia also, much against its will and interests, 
to submit to this new and outrageous insult of the hated 
French Emperor, and equally hated kingly rule of the Pope, 
but he had the power and he exercised it, leaving no alternative 
but servile submission or death; worship the image I have set 
up or be killed; all must receive the mark of identification 
with this new order of of things, or imprisonment, banishment 
and death must be the consequence. 

The expression “and all the world wondered after the beast 
which had the wound by the sword and did live,” had its 
fulfillment when it beheld, with wonder and astonishment, the 
sudden and unlooked for events which transpired among the 
Catholic kingdoms of Europe in 1848. But more of this 
hereafter. 


God and the World. 


155 


CHAPTER XVI. 

THE EUROPEAN REVOLUTION IN 1848. 

This revolution commenced with. Pope Pins the IX, as we 
shall see from its history. The Pope had promised his sub¬ 
jects of the Papal States a constitution, but delayed its fulfill¬ 
ment so long that they became excited and demanded he 
should keep his promise; the result was he became alarmed 
and, in the garb of a servant, fled to Gaeta, Xaples, in the night. 
Messina and Garibaldi seized the opportunity and established 
a republic, but in the prophecy, which is God’s history of 
these events given in advance, this republic has no permanent 
existence, therefore its evanescence. The Pope now issued a 
command to the Catholic kingdoms of Europe to reseat him 
in his authority, and to the astonishment of the world none 
obeyed, and equally was it wonder-struck at beholding Napo¬ 
leon, then president of the French republic, undertaking and 
accomplishing the extremely inconsistent act, that of reestab¬ 
lishing in power the greatest enemy to civil and religious lib¬ 
erty the world ever saw. Thus did he deceive the world by 
means of those miracles (prodigies, wonders), which he had 
power to do in the sight of the beast. Hence it is said, “ All 
the world wondered after the beast which had the wound by 
the sword and did live.” Indeed, the whole course of Napo¬ 
leon the III has been one of little else than treachery, success, 
and wonderment. 

Let us take a glance at some of the events with which he has 
equally deceived and astonished the civilized world. First 
he was elected president, while Lamartine and M. Thiers, who, 
by their wise administration, established the provisional gov¬ 
ernment under the most critical circumstances, but who were 
thrown into comparative obscurity by the crafty movements 


156 


The Philosophy of 


of tliis arch-deceiver. Hardly any one knew that there was 
such a person as Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, until he sneaked 
into the National guards from the gambling saloons of New 
York and London, having no claim whatever of being a repub¬ 
lican, but the nephew of the first Napoleon, who proved him¬ 
self a traitor by acting in accordance with the sentiment, 4 4 1 
was born a republican (he said) but circumstances made me 
an emperor,” just as they might make any other professed 
friend of liberty an emperor, who had a nature bad enough to 
be thus moulded. Such a change of purpose might have 
been something of an apology, if he could have said, I was 
born an emperor and circumstances made me a republican, 
but he was a true prototype of this other perjurer and traitor 
to liberty, Napoleon the III. Behold him just before his four 
years’ term of the presidency expires, alarmed lest he should 
not receive a reelection, usurping the government of the, 
nation, by proclaiming himself emperor of France. To accom¬ 
plish this, the army of Algiers, who had been there fighting 
Abdel Kader, barbarously driving men, women and children 
from their homes into caves of the earth, and then building 
fires at their mouths, thereby either burning them alive or 
suffocating them to death with smoke; such were the soldiers, 
thus brutalized who had been sent by Louis Phillippe under 
Prince De Joinville, on this Algerian campaign, who, of 
course, had no sympathy with the republicans of France, and 
whom Louis Napoleon commands to plant their cannon so as 
to rake the streets where the most prominent republicans 
resided, who, at a given signal, early on the morning of the 
23d of December, executed the work of murdering, in cold 
blood, unarmed citizens, men, women and children, indiscrim¬ 
inately by hundreds, so that they might not be in his way of 
usurpation. 

At this spectacle the civilized world looked on aghast, sup¬ 
posing it impossible that he should hold his usurped authority 
even for a week ; but to the wonder of every one, it was soon 
learned that his nefarious purpose had been planned with 
a masterly hand, and by which he was firmly seated on the 


God and the Would. 


157 


imperial throne, and in a very little while we behold him 
gaining the prestige of England and to its lasting disgrace, we 
behold the hnmiliating spectacle of Napoleon the III in Buck¬ 
ingham Palace, and, for fear of the monster, Queen Victoria 
saluting him and shaking the hand which was scarcely washed 
from the life-blood of noble men, women and children, and 
from that day, he has held the prestige not only of England, 
but of every other nation of Europe. Behold the humiliation 
of the old world crouched before one unprincipled and per¬ 
jured usurper. “ He doth great wonders.” 

Next we find him courting the friendship and recognition 
of Russia, desiring that she should acknowledge him as one 
of the great monarchs to whom the destiny of the world is com-' 
mitted, but the answer of the emperor was any thing but pleas¬ 
ing to the usurper. Nicholas wrote Napoleon to this effect: 
“You are doing well enough in your way, but you must 
understand that you are not one of the royal blood to whom 
the destinies of Europe are divinely committed.” This insult 
the tyrant remembered, and resulted in his bringing on the 
Crimean war. Here he succeeds in forming a powerful alli¬ 
ance of France, England, Austria and Turkey against Russia, 
and, of course, Russia not being able to contend with the whole 
of Europe, or nearly so, was forced to succumb, and hence 
the fortunes of the war were against her. This presents 
another of his prodigies which also astonished the world. Of 
course the revengeful animus of his bad nature was not the 
ostensible cause of the war, although the real one. He found 
it a very easy task to induce England, Austria and Turkey to 
become allies in order to cripple the rising, and, in Europe, 
the unequaled, power of Russia. And now in turn Austria 
has become too formidable and powerful to suit the ambitious 
notions of the European tyrant, and he effectually seeks an 
opportunity and makes war against her, who, after the battle 
of Solferino, is obliged to cede Venice to France, and is driven 
out of Italy, and humiliated in the eyes of the world. 

Napoleon has now risen to the zenith of his power, and arro¬ 
gantly dictates to the nations. He is at least a wonder and a 


The Philosophy of 


158 

dread of all Europe. Bismarck commences the work of uniting 
Germany. Napoleon says no! only on condition that my 
empire shall be extended to the Rhine. Bismarck meets this 
like a hero, and declares that the French empire shall not be 
extended one foot in that direction. Here, for the first time in 
his career, Napoleon meets an enemy over whom he cannot 
dominate or who he cannot subdue, while all the Catholic 
princes, including the Pope himself, fears and obeys him. 
Protestant Prussia defies his power, presenting the great change 
in the history of the ages, that, though Catholicism is so weak 
that a man, for his own ambitious aggrandizement, wields its 
power according to his will, yet Protestantism disdains his 
menaces and defies his power. Hence, we see, that as the influ¬ 
ence of Catholicism becomes weak and hated by the nations 
and states of the world, Protestanism grows powerful, as the 
harbinger of its liberalization. But the French emperor is 
still intriguing for the curtailment of Prussian power, the 
formidableness of which renders him restless and unhappy.* 
Again, we behold him casting an invidious eye toward our 
country, taking the advantage of our civil war, supposing it 
would eventuate in its disintegration, and sends Maximilian, 
accompanied by an army and fleet, to Mexico, overthrows the 
hated republic and establishes him as emperor of Mexico, 
hoping, no doubt, to accomplish the same ruin of our own 
beloved republic. But here, again, his dark machinations in 
creating Catholic kingdoms and empires on the ruin of repub¬ 
lics, meets another formidable obstacle. His armies are 
defeated and ignominiously driven from the continent, ser¬ 
vilely leaving the dead body of a prince of the House of Haps- 
burg in the hands of the victorious Mexicans ; and which suc¬ 
cess is to be attributed, in no small degree, to the moral support 
Mexico received from the United States. Does not such mar¬ 
velous achievements vindicate the position that Napoleon the 
III is the subject of the prediction. “ He doth great wonders 
so that he maketh fire to come down from heaven in the sight 


*This was written morewtlian a year before the war of 1870 and 1871 between 
France and Prussia. 



God and the World. 


159 

of the beast,” the expression “heaven” designating the religi¬ 
ous character of all his movements. He found the Pope, “ the 
first beast before him,” powerless to withstand the rapid 
strides republicanism was making in the world, and well 
knowing that Papacy and freedom were incompatibilities, he 
seizes the power to crush it out, just as the Popes always had 
done and always would, if they had the power, and pursues 
his wonderful career in making an image to the beast who 
stood before him wounded to death, and in his death throes 
appealing to the Catholic kings for help. The first blow Napo¬ 
leon struck demolished the Roman republic, the next destroyed 
the French republic, restoring them both to the Catholic 
church. He next struck down the Mexican republic, and 
seats upon the throne of Mexico a Bourbon Catholic emperor. 
Thus he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him. 
“And he had the power to give life unto the image of the beast, 
commanding that all should not only worship the beast which 
had the wound by the sword and did live, but that they should 
worship the image of the beast, which he had made,” in which 
he holds the civil power which the Popes had held for 1260 
years; this must they reverence. “ He is the eighth and is of 
the seven” (heads on the dragon), but though like a lamb, yet 
speaks as a dragon. He doth his wonders in the sight of the 
beast, ruling and reigning in the place of the Pope, and in 
professed sympathy with the Papal hierarchy. The Pope has 
declared him to be the holy son and saviour of the church, 
and the last year received the hat and sword blessed by the 
Pope, which, according to custom, are given to the sovereign 
who had rendered, during the year, the greatest service to the 
Papal See. It is the mission of the lamb-beast to compel sub¬ 
mission and homage to be paid to the beast that had the 
wound by the sword and did live; and after restoring the 
Pope we see how devotedly has been the whole career of 
Napoleon in the establishment of Papal dynasties. Is it to 
be supposed that had he succeeded in establishing his Papal 
empire in Mexico, to do which he was invited by the Catholic 
church of that country, and if, as he supposed, our States had 


160 


The Philosophy of 


suffered disintegration by the rebellion, that would he not have 
undertaken the erection of a Papal kingdom in the southern 
division % What would have been more popular among the 
Papists of Louisiana than such a movement ? Is it not also 
perfectly apparent that his principal design in endeavoring to 
prevent the unity of Germany was because it was the work of 
Protestant Prussia ? 

That there are only two horns on the lamb-beast, denoting 
that no other but two kingdoms are to engage in this work in 
relation to the Pope, and that France and Sardinia or Italy 
are represented by those, is further illustrated by the following 
telegram headed: 

Italy. “ increased expendituees. a shaep note to the 

SPANISH GO VEENMENT. 5 ’ 

Floeence, Jan. 20, 1867. 

“According to a statement made by the government, the 
measures taken to prevent, and put a stop to, the late invasion 
of the State and the Church, by Garibaldians, have added 
eighteen millions of livres to the expenditures of the past 
year. Prime Minister Menabrea has addressed a sharp note 
to the Spanish Government, called forth by the speech of 
Queen Isabella, at the opening of the Cortes. Menabrea 
informs the Spanish cabinet that Italy will not admit the inter¬ 
vention in her affairs of any foreign power save France , in 
whose case such intervention is only allowed by special treaty 
stipulations between them.” 

In this arrangement we see the humiliation of Italy, who is 
here confessedly compelled, by this insolent foreigner, to pay 
such a sum of money, in one year, and to send her army to 
assist her deadly enemy, France, to hold up another deadly 
enemy of hers, the Papal government of Pome, thus prevent¬ 
ing her own unity and keeping her own government out of 
Pome, its natural capital. How wonderful that such a tyrant 
should have been so long tolerated \ Why has not Europe, in 
accordance with the sentiment of the civilized world, formed a 
combination, to crush this terrible usurper as the allies did 
Napoleon the I, who was an innocent man in comparison with 


God and the World . 


161 


Napoleon the III. Behold him in the short space of twenty 
years humbling all the nations of Europe, either by dark and 
deceptive intrigues, or open war, even endeavoring to prosecute 
his mad schemes on our own continent. How emphatically 
is it true of this power whose “ name is the number of a man,” 
“ that all the world wondered after the beast.” 

From these conclusions it must be obvious, that the lamb- 
beast, with his two horns, speaking as a dragon, being the 
eighth, and of the seven, and goeth into perdition, must be its 
last form, and as the dragon under all his heads symbolizes 
the civil power of all his kingdoms thus represented, while the 
woman sitting upon it, as the symbol of the ecclesiastical 
power of those kingdoms, or that they combined the religious 
and civil elements while under her control, and also that if 
the lamb-beast, the symbol, has its fulfillment in the histoiy 
of France and Italy, particularly Sardinia, in their relations 
with the popedom, then these three powers must preserve 
substantially the same relative positions in regard to Popery 
they now occupy, and which have existed since 1848 until the 
end of the world. This power is also represented by the tail 
of the dragon conveying the idea that it was the last form of 
the dragon of John, or the great and terrible beast of Daniel, 
whose existence the prophet was informed reached until the 
consummation. “I beheld till the beast was slain and his 
body given to the burning flame,” or according to the descrip¬ 
tion of the revelator’s great battle of Armegedom, or of God 
Almighty, fought between him and the wicked nations, of 
which these beasts are the symbolization. “And the beast 
was taken and the false prophet which wrought miracles before 
him, with which he deceived them that had the mark of the 
beast and them that worshiped his image, these both were cast 
alive into a lake of fire and brimstone.” From what has been 
said, it would seem that this application of the prophecy is 
unquestionable, but we shall find the evidence accumulating 
as we advance in the discussion, both as it respects the events 
and the prophetic periods connected with them. 

21 


162 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER XYII. 

THE PROPHETIC PERIODS COVERING THE COMBINED CIVIL AND 
RELIGIOUS POWER OF CATHOLIC ROME. 

The next point in this prophecy claiming onr attention is the 
prophetic periods during which Papacy held the civil control 
of the ten-horned head of the dragon, which was wounded to 
death by its assumption of their power. 

We have introduced only that part of the dragon having 
the seven heads and ten horns, which horns were on the sixth 
and seventh heads, bringing to view the united temporal and 
ecclesiastical power of Papacy, and the period covering the 
combination of this authority, Rev. 13, commencing at the 
fifth verse : ‘ £ And there was given unto him a mouth, speak¬ 
ing great things and blasphemies, and power was given him to 
continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth 
in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his 
tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven, and it was given 
him to make war with the saints and to overcome them ; and 
power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and 
nations, and all that.dwell upon the earth shall worship him, 
whose names are not written in the book of life, of the Lamb 
slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an 
ear let him hear; he that leadeth into captivity shall go into 
captivity, he that killeth with the sword must be killed with 
the sword.” This, as we have seen, brings us down to the 
condition of Papacy, in the year 1848, and to the inauguration 
of the two-horned lamb-beast, which must therefore be the 
termination of this forty-two months’ period, because it is no 
more true that the Pope was a prince, holding temporal power, 
which is the power to make war, etc., up to that time, than 
that he has held no such power since. This period of forty- 
two months, thirty days to a month, the Hebrew manner of 


God and the World . 


163 


reckoning time, makes 1,260 days, which, as symbolic time, is 
a day for a year; this is demonstrated by the fact, that it 
consumed 1,260 years in the fulfillment of the events the period 
comprehends, besides other incontestable evidences, which we 
shall have occasion to present, in the examination of other 
chains of events of prophecy which stand connected with this 
same period. Now, if the 1,260 years ended in 1848, when 
the Pope lost the last vestige of temporal power over the 
Catholic kingdoms of Europe and such governments of the 
world, then it must have commenced in the year 588, A. D. 
Dr. Moshiem, writing under this date, remarks: “How greatly 
the ideas of many had advanced respecting the powers of the 
early bishops of Home, cannot be better shown than by the 
example of Eunodius, who at an ecclesiastical council said, 
the Pontiff judges in the place of God.” Some of the 
Pontiffs, however, still paid homage to the kings and 
emperors, for they had not yet become so lost to all shame as 
to look upon temporal sovereigns as their vassals. He also 
says, under the same date, that it was then that the Pope was 
called Christ’s vicegerent on earth, which Papal expounders 
say means that he is the only rightful sovereign, as well as the 
head of the Church; he also received the title of “ Sovereign 
Pontiff.” 

We here introduce the little horn of Daniel’s prophecy, and 
the prophetic periods connected with its history and which 
will be found strikingly corroborative of this period and the 
events we have just considered, Dan. viii, ix, and onward. 
“And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which 
waxed exceeding great, toward the south and toward the east 
and toward the pleasant land, and it waxed great even to the 
host of Heaven ; and it cast down some of the host and of the 
stars, to the ground, and stamped upon them; yea he 
magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him 
the daily sacrifice was taken away and the place of his 
sanctuary was cast down, and an host was given him against 
the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down 
the truth to the ground, and it practiced and prospered. 


The Philosophy of 


164 

Then I heard one saint speaking and another saint said nnto 
that certain saint which speak, how long shall be the vision 
concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desola¬ 
tion to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden 
under foot; and he said nnto me nnto two thousand three 
hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. And in 
the latter time of their kingdom (the divided Grecian kingdom), 
when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce 
countenance shall stand up, and his power shall be mighty, 
but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully 
and shall practice and prosper, and shall destroy the mighty 
and the holy people, and through his policy also, he shall 
cause craft to prosper in his hand, and he shall magnify 
himself in his heart and by peace shall destroy many; and he 
shall stand up against the prince of princes, but he shall be 
broken without hand, and the vision of the evening and the 
morning is true ; wherefore shut thou up the vision for it shall 
be for many days.” 

Here we see that the little horn came out of one of the divis¬ 
ions of Greece, which is Rome, in Italy, called ‘ £ the pleasant 
land.” Italy is proverbially known as u The garden of the 
world.” In connection with this, we here introduce Paul’s 
second letter to the Thess., regarding this power. In his first 
epistle he had said so much about the coming of the Lord 
that this church had come to the conclusion he was immedi¬ 
ately to appear, and the effect was they were thrown into 
trouble, hence he writes : Now, we beseech you, brethren, by 
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering 
together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind or 
be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from 
us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive 
you by any means, for that day shall not come, except there 
come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed. 
The son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above 
all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that lie, as God, 
sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. 
Remember ye not when I was with you I told you of these 


God and the World. 


165 


things ? and now ye know what withholdeth, that he might be 
revealed in his time, for the mystery of iniquity doth already 
work, only he who now hindereth will hinder until he be taken 
ont of the way, and then shall that wicked be revealed, whom 
the Lord shall consume with the spirit of. his mouth, and shall 
destroy with the brightness of his coming ; even him whose 
coming is after the working of satan, with all power and signs 
and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unright¬ 
eousness in them that perish, because they received not the love 
of the truth, that they might be saved ; and for this cause God 
shall send them strong delusions, that they should believe a 
lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, 
but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” In order to show the 
importance of this vision, which Paul here quotes from the 
prophecy of Daniel in substance, as that of the little horn, we 
will also introduce a passage wherein the Apostle Peter speaks 
of it. In his first epistle : “ Receiving the end of your faith, 
even the salvation of your souls, of which salvation the 
prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophe¬ 
sied of the grace that should come unto you, searching what 
time and what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was 
in them did signify when it testified before-hand the sufferings 
of Christ and the glory that should follow, unto whom it was 
revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did min¬ 
ister the things which are now reported unto you, by them 
that have preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost 
sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look 
into.” Here we find that there were given to the prophets 
periods of time reaching to the sufferings of Christ, this being 
the seventy weeks, and to the glory that should follow, at the 
end of which the Prophet Daniel was told that he should 
stand in his lot, or to have his part in the glorious inheritance 
beyond the resurrection. 

In regard to these periods the prophets searched diligently 
to understand the manner of the time given, whether the days 
were literal, a day for a day, or figurative*a day for a year. ' 
This is what Daniel was doing when Gabriel was sent to make 


166 


The Philosophy of 


him understand. “Wherefore (said the angel) consider the 
vision. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and 
in the midst of the last week Messiah shall be cut off.” This 
was the time for the sufferings of Christ, and which the apos¬ 
tle declares the angels desire to look into. This fact is recorded 
no where else in the Bible, only in regard to this vision, called 
the vision of the evening and the morning, and relates to that 
part of it concerning the destruction of Paganism and the 
setting up of Papacy, Daniel viii, 13. “Then I heard one 
saint, or angel, speaking, and another saint said unto that 
certain saint which spake, how long shall be the vision con¬ 
cerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desola¬ 
tion, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden 
under foot?” Here, as Peter says, the angels desire to look 
into the manner of this time, covering the events of the vision. 
But it will be observed that the answer was not given to the 
angelic inquirer, but to the prophet, “ for he (the other angel) 
said unto me, unto two thousand three hundred days, then 
shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” The angel to whom this 
inquiry was made was probably Gabriel, for in the sixteenth 
verse it is said, “Gabriel, make this man (Daniel) to under¬ 
stand the vision. ’ ’ This inquiry is repeated in the twelfth chap¬ 
ter. In the vision he had seen the little horn power doing its 
dreadful work of treading down the kings of the earth and 
the sanctuary, the church of God; or, in its most comprehen¬ 
sive meaning, the sanctuary, in these prophecies, includes the 
whole earth destined to be the everlasting kingdom of God, 
after the works of wickedness are burned up and it made the 
new earth. “For he shall send his angels, and they shall 
gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them 
which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire ; 
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the 
righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. 
Who hath ears to hear let him hear.” “Then I, Daniel, 
looked and behold, there stood other two (angels), the one on 
this side of the bSnk of the river, and the other on that side 
of the bank of the river ; and one said to the man clothed in 


God and the World. 


167 


linen, which was npon the waters of the river, How long shall it 
be to the end of these wonders ? And I heard the man clothed 
in linen, which was npon the waters of the river, when he 
held np his right hand and his left hand nnto heaven, and 
swear by him that liveth for ever and ever that it should be 
* for a time, times and an half-time; and when he (the little 
horn) shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy 
people all these things shall be finished.” 

Here angels are again desiring to look into the time con¬ 
cerning the same events which mark the commencement of the 
last division of the two thousand three hundred days, the 
first four hundred and ninety of which were cut off or deter¬ 
mined to be fulfilled upon the Jews, reaching to the end of the 
Jewish, and commencement of the Christian, dispensation, 
which was the year 37 of the Christian era, as we have shown. 
This two thousand three hundred days continues, marking no 
other event, until the year 588 A. D., which was the taking 
away of the daily sacrifice, or Paganism, and the establish¬ 
ment of Papacy, the former of which hindered the revelation 
of the latter, “the man of sin,” and who then commenced to 
tread under foot “the host,” Catholic kingdoms of Europe, 
and the sanctuary, the church of Christ and the whole 
world ; and this, as we are informed by the oath of the angel 
upon the waters, was to continue for a time, times and an half¬ 
time (1260 years). Now, if we add this 1260 to the 588, the 
year the last of the Pagan kingdoms was subjected to Papal 
power, we have the year 1848, thus showing the connection 
of all the prophetic periods, the importance of which is seen 
by such facts as that. The man clothed in linen makes them 
the burden of a solemn oath. Angels desiring to look into 
them, and the holy prophets speaking as they were moved by 
the Holy Ghost, searching diligently to understand, and 
Gabriel sent from heaven to communicate the information to 
the prophets and the apostle, declaring it was not given for 
them, but that they did minister the things for us. Though 
the apostles themselves did not understand the time in con¬ 
nection with these events, until the Holy Ghost was given, yet 


168 


The Philosophy of 


in accordance with the promise of the Father, they now did, 
which will be seen by the following, which occurred just after 
the resurrection of Christ, the disciples asked him: “Wilt 
thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel, and he 
said unto them, it is not for you to know the times and sea¬ 
sons which the Father hath put in his own power, but ye shall 
receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and 
ye shall be witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in 
Samaria, and to the utmost parts of the earth.” Ye shall 
then understand these periods of time and the events con¬ 
nected with them, just as Paul did. He knew the world was 
not to end in his day, because the man of sin, the abomina¬ 
tion of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, had 
not yet been revealed. He knew that the mystery of ini¬ 
quity (Paganism) then existed and must be taken out of the 
way, as the hindering cause preventing the revelation of 
him who exalteth himself above every god.” We do not 
believe that the definite time, as to the day, can be understood 
when the prophetic periods end. The chronology of the world, 
though given under inspiration, is too irregular for that, for 
it takes no account of fragments of years, and Christ himself 
says, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man ; no, not the 
angels nor the Son, but the Father only.” But afterward it 
was revealed to the Son, at least in years, which the following 
shows: “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave 
unto him , and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his 
servant John.” And surely the Book of Kevelation contains 
the time reaching to this event, Rev. x, 15, we have the fol¬ 
lowing spoken of Christ, called a mighty angel, clothed with a 
cloud, and a rainbow was about his head, and his face was as 
it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. “And the angel 
which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up 
his hand to heaven and swear by him that liveth forever and 
ever that there should be time no longer, but in the days of 
the-voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, 
the mystery of God shall be finished.” The period thus fin¬ 
ished is the same as that given to Daniel, as we have just seen, 


God and the World. 169 

in the same imposing manner and by the same angnst person¬ 
age, and which was to commence 1260 years before. 

This period does not run to the end of the world, as Mr. 
Miller made it, but to what is called the “time of the end,” 
which, as we have shown, commenced with the destruction of 
the temporal power of Popery, in the year 1848, being, also, 
the last part of the two thousand three hundred days, or 
years, making them also end at that event and time. 

22 


170 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

EVIDENCES WHICH FIX THE LENGTH OF THE 2,300 DAYS' 

PEEIOD. 

In regard to the length of this period, or its manner as Peter 
expresses it, we have a cine, in the 12th chapter of Revelations, 
which we will introduce after quoting those passages contain¬ 
ing it, and of course connected with the same events, Dan. vii, 
25: “ And he shall speak great words against the Most High, 
and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to 
change times and laws, and they shall be given into his hand, 
until a time and times and the dividing of time.” Chapter 
xii, 7th verse: “And swear by him that liveth forever and 
ever that it should be for a time, and times and a half-time.” 
Rev. xiii, 5 : “ Andthefe was given unto him a mouth speaking 
great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him 
to continue forty and two months. ’ 5 Chapter xii, 14: “ And to 
the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she 
might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is 
nourished for a time, and times and half a time from the face 
of the serpent.” This is repeated in the 6th verse, thus: 
“And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a 
place prepared of God that they should feed her there, a 
thousand two hundred and three-score days.” 

Here we have the same period, descriptive of the same events, 
repeated five times in the scriptures, and the last two, as we see, 
gives the clue to the number of the days, one of which says 
the woman fled into her place prepared of God in the wilder¬ 
ness, and was there a time, times and half a time. A time is 
360 days, a Hebrew year, and here are three times which 
makes 1,080, and a half-time, 180, which makes 1,260. And 
then in the sixth verse, the woman fled into the same place and 
was there one thousand two hundred and three-score days, 


God and the Would. 


171 


1,260. The event here symbolized by the flight of the woman 
was from Papal persecutions, and was fulfilled during the 
time the Popes held temporal power, and, therefore, in a year 
for a day, and as we have already seen terminated in 1848. 
This period, as given to Daniel, would seem to reach to the end 
of time ; his inquiry was: “How long shall it be to the end 
of these wonders?” comprehending the resurrection of the 
righteous and wicked dead, which had just been described. 
But if we take the answer given in connection with the whole 
vision, or explanation it received, into the account, it will be 
seen that the 2,300 days’ period only reached to what is called 
u the time of the endf and not to the end itself. The time of 
the end is repeated four times in the prophecy, and com¬ 
mences at the termination of the 2,300 years, which was 1848, 
and reaches to the end of the 1,335, which is 75 years and 
is the end itself of the last prophetic period. Immediately 
after this answer was given, there was also given two other 
periods, though shorter in themselves, yet reaching beyond 
this, the last and longest of which was to run to the “con¬ 
summation.” This was also after the prophet had been 
informed that it should be for a time, times and a half-time. 
“And when he (the little horn) shall have accomplished to 
scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be 
finished.” “And I heard, but I understood not; then said I, 
O, my Lord, what shall be the end of these things % And he 
said unto me, go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed 
up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be made 
white and tried, but the wicked shall do wickedly, and none 
of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall under¬ 
stand. And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be 
taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set 
up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. 
Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thirteen hundred 
and thirty-five days ; but go thou thy way till the end be, for 
thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.” 

Here are certain things, divinely marked, to be accomplished 
during the period denominated, “the time of the end,” and 


172 


The Philosophy of 


by an impartial investigation it may be ascertained whether 
we are living in this period, in which it is said, “ the wise shall 
understand.” One of those- things is that knowledge shall 
increase, and is not this strikingly true of the present age, 
presenting a prominent contrast between it and any of the 
past, and can any reflecting mind avoid the conclusion that 
the year 1848 opened up a new era, in the rapid spread of 
knowledge, and that the last twenty years has witnessed its 
acceleration in an unprecedented degree. We mean, now, 
knowledge in general. It seems as though it is only neces¬ 
sary to indicate this fact in order to vindicate its truthfulness. 
Were it at all dubious, facts and comparisons in abundance 
might be presented, showing that the prediction of the prophet, 
“ knowledge shall increase,” has its exemplification in this, 
as in no other age of the world. 

But we understand this increase of knowledge as referring 
more particularly to that of the scriptures, and especially the 
prophecies, which being unsealed during this period, as they 
were to be, of course, a knowledge of them rapidly increases, 
which unsealing is the result of their study .and fulfillment. 
ISTot that we suppose the author of these scriptures has inter¬ 
fered especially to bring about this result, but that the inspired 
history of the events given beforehand has been and are being 
so perfectly fulfilled by the movements of the Papal govern¬ 
ment, in its relation with France and the Catholic kingdoms 
of Europe, that to consider is to understand and know that 
this is the very picture seen by the prophets, and thus deline¬ 
ated for the information of the church and world. 

Another phase of this picture is, that “ The wicked shall do 
wickedly and none of them shall understand.” No principle 
is better understood and more universally conceded than that 
in the ratio of the increase of moral light so is that of human 
responsibility, and therefore if obligations thus imposed are 
not discharged, a corresponding condition of depravity and 
wickedness is self-inflicting, hence, while the wise increase 
in the knowledge of these truths, and become 4 ‘ established in 
present truth,” and sanctified through its belief, the wicked 


God and the World. \ 73 

do wickedly, and as a consequence none of them understand 
any thing in relation to these events. 

It is also another well-settled principle of revealed truth, that 
in order to understand its broad signification, reaching to the 
“ thoughts and intents of the heart,” the heart, or moral 
nature, must become so changed from its natural aversion to 
them that it will be in love and harmony with the “deep 
things of God therefore, said Jesus : “If any man will do 
his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God.” 
The most superficial observer cannot but see that the present 
is an age unparalleled for the perpetration of horrid and 
unnatural crimes. We have a literal exemplification of a pic¬ 
ture of a time just prior to the dissolution of all things, shown 
by God to the Prophet Ezekiel, accompanied with the injunc¬ 
tion, thus: “Make a chain, for the land is full of bloody 
crimes.” The answer of Jesus to the questions of the disci¬ 
ples : “ Tell us, when shall these things be, and what shall 

be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” 
furnishes us with the true state of society at that event, and 
which we here introduce. He had just told them that the time 
would come when the temple would be so utterly destroyed 
that there would not be left one stone upon another that should 
not be thrown down, at the conclusion of which they pro¬ 
pounded three questions, namely : “ When shall these things 

be (the destruction of the temple), what shall be the sign of 
thy coming, and of the end of the world ?” Math, xxiv, Mark 
xii and Luke xxi, gives us this discourse. We quote from 
Luke that part of which relates to the last two questions : 
6 £ And there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in 
the stars, and upon earth distress of nations with perplexity, 
the sea and waves roaring, men’s hearts failing them for fear, 
and for looking after those things which are coming on the 
earth, for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken; then 
shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power 
and great glory. And when these things begin to come to 
pass then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemp¬ 
tion dra^eth nigh.” 


174 


The Philosophy of 


“ And he spake to them a parable : behold the fig tree, and 
all the trees, when they now shoot forth ye see and know of 
your own selves that summer is nigh at hand ; so, likewise 
ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the 
kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Verily, I say unto you, 
this generation (the generation living at the time these events 
or signs take place, and of course witness them) shall not 
pass away till all be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass 
away, but my words shall not pass away. And take heed to 
yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with 
surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life, and so 
that day come upon you unawares, for as a snare shall it come 
on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch 
ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted 
worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and 
to stand before the Son of Man/’ 

With regard to the signs given here of this great event we 
will only remark that they refer to the condition of the church 
and the world, and relate to human events connected there¬ 
with, and not to any peculiar phenomena in the literal sun, 
moon and stars. That the church is represented by these, as 
figures, or symbols, may be seen by the following revelation : 
“I saw a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the 
sun, and the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown 
of twelve stars.” The connection shows that the woman here 
which brought forth the man-child, who was caught up unto 
God and to his throne, represents Christ born of the church. Of 
this Matthew says, “ The sun shall be darkened and the moon 
shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven.” 
The idea conveyed is that the sun, “the gospel of the king¬ 
dom of God,” shall be darkened in relation to the coming of 
that kingdom, and is not the mind of the church now as dark 
as midnight upon this subject? Who cannot perceive the 
change which has come over the gospel within thirty years, in 
regard to the consummation of all things being at hand ? Then 
the judgment of the great day was preached so practically 
near that sinners were made to tremble and repeat, lest it 


God and the World. 


175 


should immediately come and find them unprepared to stand 
before the Son of Man ; but now, by a misunderstanding and 
perversion of scripture, making it teach the great error that 
the world is first to be converted, the judgment is necessarily 
put so far off that no one supposes it possible to come in our 
day, hence the sun is darkened. 

The moon typifies the law of types and shadows, shining 
by reflection, and which also shall not give its light upon this 
subject, which would be a natural consequence. If the plain 
gospel was dark, how much more so would be the types and 
shadows of the law? Indeed, the books of the Old Testa¬ 
ment are now considered little else than a history of the Jews, 
and an eminent English divine declares that the five books of 
Moses are not inspired, and are, therefore, no part of the Bible, 
and, as for the prophecies, they cannot be understood, and 
which are oftener quoted as the history of the days in which 
they were written than as predictions of future events. Truly, 
the moon fails to give her light, in reference to the scope of 
the teachings of the Old Testament scriptures, in contrast to 
such notions. We may gather an appreciable idea from a 
broad declaration of Paul, who said, “I went everywhere 
preaching the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, and say¬ 
ing none other things than Moses and the prophets said 
should come” According to this, if Paul preached the whole 
gospel then it was contained in Moses and the prophets, and 
the principal features of the gospel he preached was the glad 
tidings of the kingdom of God, that is, that the kingdom of 
God is coming at the end of this world, and, being the inheri¬ 
tance of the saints, would be the consummation of their hopes; 
therefore, to them Paul preached its approach as glad tidings. 
]STow, has not the moon, at the present day, in the estimation 
of the cnuroh, entered into a profound eclipse, in comparison 
with its shining as in the days of Paul ? The result of this is 
the development of the other sign. The stars (Christians) fall 
from heaven or “ withdraw their shining,” as the Prophet Joel 
expresses it. The brightest stars are often stumbled and their 
light extinguished by the adoption of these errors, which 


176 


The Philosophy of 


otherwise would bless the world. “They prophesy of the 
times afar off” and preach, just as the error that the resurrec¬ 
tion had passed already was preached, and overthrew the 
faith of some in Paul’s day. “Peace and safety” to the 
world in reference to its approaching doom, and thus put far 
off the evil day, “while, if their minds were enlightened upon 
this great subject, they would lift up their voice like a trumpet, 
and seeing the sword coming give the people warning, so that 
they might not perish.” That the church might be thus edu¬ 
cated was the very object for which these signs were given. 

The reason Jesus gave this descriptive picture of the con¬ 
dition and danger of the world, or, more properly, the church, 
is strikingly apparent by the things to which it would be 
exposed and against whose danger he warns them, and indi¬ 
cates that the indulgence of which would cause that day to 
come on them unawares, “as a snare,” and as it will come on 
all them that dwell upon the face of the whole earth. “Then 
shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see.the 
Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and 
great glory.” “ See that your hearts be not overcharged with 
surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life.” High liv¬ 
ing, and cares consequent upon it, were the prominent charac¬ 
teristics of the men living in that age, when the events of 
prophecy were being so strikingly fulfilled, that if ordinary 
heed was given them it might just as well be known that the 
kingdom of Grod was nigh at hand, as that summer was when 
the buds of the trees shoot forth. Mark how emphatic are his 
words: “ When ye see this ye 7cnow of your own selves that 

summer is nigh at hand; so, likewise, when ye see these things 
come to pass know ye that the kingdom of Grod ¥ is nigh at 
hand.” Some will take heed to this admonition and instruc¬ 
tion of Jesus. Of such Paul says: “Butye, brelBren, are 
not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief 
in the night;” but the world, and the great mass of the pro¬ 
fessed church, will be in total darkness in relation to its end, 
and consequently it will burst as suddenly as the lightnings 


God and the World. 177 

flash or the thunders roar from heaven, to the eternal dismay 
of a guilty world and a worldly church. 

This is in perfect accord with the picture shown to the 
prophet of the “ time of the end.” Knowledge shall increase, 
the wise shall understand, but the wicked shall do wickedly 
and none of the wicked shall understand , and that while many 
shall be made white and tried by the surrounding worldly- 
mindedness of the masses, and perhaps even persecuted for 
professing any knowledge of these great teachings of Moses 
and the prophets, Christ and the apostles, the entire world of 
the wicked and the great majority of the professed Christian 
church, will be found in the embrace of profound slumber and 
sleep, from which nothing will startle them but the blasts of 
Gabriel’s trumpet, summoning them to appear before the bar 
of the last great judgment “ to give an account of their stew¬ 
ardship.” The last event which is to take place in the time 
of the end, is the contamination of the Protestant church by 
the Papal, and is thus brought to view : “ And when he (the 

little horn) shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the 
holy people all these things shall be finished.” The man 
standing upon the waters of the river, clothed in linen, who 
swore by him that liveth for ever and ever that it should be 
for a time, times and a half, in which Papacy should do its 
work, closes by saying: “And when he shall have accom¬ 
plished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things 
shall be finished, and he shall wear out the saints of the Most 
High and prevail against them until the Ancient of Days 
comes.” Popery is here represented as doing its last work. 
Not now by the use of the sword of civil power, but by a sys¬ 
tem of deception, if any thing more fatal to the existence and 
progress of vital godliness. What we understand by this 
“ scattering the power of the holy people” by Papal agencies 
is, first, that the holy people is the real Christian church of 
the present age ; second, its power, its vital, simple godliness 
is to be scattered, or greatly weakened, by Papacy ; third, 
this is to be accomplished, or is being, by the present Jesuiti¬ 
cal character of the Romish church. The order of the Jesuits 
23 


178 


The Philosophy of 


was founded by Ignatius Layolo, in the year 1534, but was 
never popular enough to elect a Pope until Pius the IX. Its 
fundamental principle, adopted from Origen, is, that the end, 
which is the promotion of the interests of the Catholic church, 
justifies any means within its power to accomplish this end, 
hence its deceitful, crafty and prevaricating dissimulation. 
Pius the IX was elected to the popedom in 1846, and being a Jes¬ 
uit himself, the whole Romish priesthood was obliged to adopt 
his principles. This distinguishing feature of the horn that had 
eyes, indicative of its subtle sagacity, and a mouth speaking 
great things, is also thus characterized: ‘ 4 He shall cause craft 

to prosper, and by peace shall destroy many.” Having lost 
his civil power and cannot use the sword, he has recourse to a 
peace policy to accomplish the same end : 6 6 He shall also des¬ 
troy by flatteries.” By putting on the deceptive garb of Jes¬ 
uitism the church of Rome appears what she is not, and what, 
before the reign of the present Pope, she had never professed 
to be, in favor of civil liberty, etc., at least its ignorant devo¬ 
tees are led to believe this. 

Pope Pius had but just been established in the Papal chair 
when, of his own accord, he proposed to give the people 
of the Papal states, under his civil jurisdiction, a consti¬ 
tutional government. The act electrified the world, the praise 
of the liberal Pope was on every tongue in favor of liberty ; 
but the sequel proved it to be a mere deception, for, as we see 
by the history of the event, he grossly violated his promise, 
and which was only an attempt to obtain the credit of being a 
friend of liberal principles, because at that time these were 
more popular in Europe than the rule of despotism, but all 
the time he was, and must have been, the most deadly foe to 
free government. 

Just at that time, also, the temperance reform was one of 
the great movements of the Protestant church, and was vastly 
popular, seeing which the Jesuits entered into it. Its great 
apostle in the Romish church, Father Matthew, after having 
moved all Ireland to take the pledge, came to this country for 
the same purpose, and it really looked for a time as though 


God and the World. 


179 


tlie Protestants were going to be entirely thrown into the back¬ 
ground by this 44 Satan coming as an angel of light,” and we 
began to look upon the 44 man of sin ” in a more favorable 
light, but we all know the result; her people knew the heart¬ 
less dishonesty of the priests in this regard, and they con¬ 
tinued to drink and sell as much of the drunkard’s drink as 
ever. It was only another Jesuistical trick to make the world 
believe Rome pious, and was not what it once was, though its 
own claim of changeless infallibility precludes any modifica¬ 
tion. She then established Sunday schools, and in some 
instances had revivals, such as they were. We can only thus 
briefly allude to the history of these events; indeed it is all 
that is necessary, because they are familiar to all. 

But what the Papal church has accomplished is, that in the 
public esteem she is also one of the branches of the Christian 
church, and, like all others, has good and bad members ; that 
salvation is just as really attainable through her instrument¬ 
ality as by any of the other religious denominations. The 
consequence of which is, we never hear now the revealed 
truth in regard to her real character preached. It is no more 
the man of sin, or according to Jesus 44 The abomination of 
desolation, standing in the holy place (professing to be the 
church), where it ought not.” It is no more the great Baby¬ 
lon, whose relentless cruelty has drenched the earth with the 
blood of fifty millions of martyrs, all of which were applied 
to her in the days of Luther. 

During our struggle for national life she pretended to be 
loyal to the country, but when the rebellion reached such 
gigantic proportions as at one time characterized it, her 
extremity was the opportunity for the Catholic church, and, 
seizing it, she threw her whole power and influence with the 
rebels, and with a deadly determination did all she could to 
crush our liberties, and in this she was only true to her 
instincts, for Popery and liberty cannot dwell peacefully 
together, where and when the former has or hopes to gain the 
ascendency. It is true that when the war first commenced 
many Catholics, both among priests and people, seemed in 


180 


The Philosophy of 


favor of putting it down, but wdien it readied sucli unlooked 
for proportions as to disappoint every one, Rome changed her 
tactics, showing her true colors, and, judging by her acts, 
said, let the Pope rule the state, as he has a right to rule the 
world ; but she failed, and must forever fail, while the world 
stands, in any attempt to regain civil power. Such is God’s 
history of her given in advance. She will prosper ecclesiasti¬ 
cally, but never again temporally. Therefore, no one need 
give himself any apprehensions about Popery acquiring 
temporal power in any nation on earth. It is her aim and 
object, but can never be realized, and every distinct effort she 
makes, such as the Pope made in promising to grant the peo¬ 
ple of his states constitutional liberty, and that to destroy the 
liberties of our country by her sympathy with the rebels, will 
only prove abortive, and have the effect to cause people to look 
upon her as antagonistic to every form of liberal government. 
She has indeed reached her last prophetic description, which 
is one simply of great pretension, bombastic talk. Says the 
prophet: “ I beheld then , because of the great words which 
the horn sjpake. I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his 
body destroyed and given to the burning flame.” Or, as seen 
by the revelator, either ignorantly or ostentatiously anticipat¬ 
ing a time when she will succeed in bringing all her wayward 
Protestant children back wuthin her fold. “I sit a queen and 
shall see no sorrow, and shall not know the loss of children,” 
is her language just before her destruction by the Son of God 
in person. The late ecumenical council, sitting in Rome, was 
for this purpose, “ for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen and 
am no widow, and shall see no sorrow, and shall not know the 
loss of children.” Therefore shall her plagues come in one 
day—death, mourning and famine ; c £ and she shall be utterly 
burned with fire,” or as “the man of sin shall be consumed 
by the brightness of Christ’s coming.” Thus when she seems 
in the height of her prosperity and ambitious self-aggrandize¬ 
ment shall this great mystic Babylon come in remembrance 
before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierce¬ 
ness of his wrath. 


God and the World . 


181 

! That the Romish church is at the present moment fulfilling 
this prophetic picture, and which is the last of her history just 
prior to her being summoned before Christ in judgment, 
against whom and his saints she has warred, will appear by 
the contents of the following paper : “ The Pope’s reply to 

Dr. Cumming, as to who may attend the Ecumenical Council, 
now sitting in Rome. To the editor of the London Star, 
Sir: By the desire of the Archbishop, I forward to you the 
inclosed translation of a letter addressed to him by his Holi¬ 
ness, in reply to the letter of the Rev. Dr. Cumming. Believ¬ 
ing that it may be interesting to some of your readers, the 
Archbishop places it at your disposal for publication. I remain, 
sir, your obedient servant, W. A. Johnson, secretary, Sept. 
30, 1869. 

“ Pope Pius IX, to our venerable brother, Henry Edward, 
Archbishop of Westminster: Venerable brother, health and 
the apostolic blessing. We have seen, from the newspapers, 
that Dr. Cumming, of Scotland, has inquired of you whether 
leave will be given, at the approaching council, for those who 
dissent from the Catholic church to put forward the arguments 
which they think can be advanced in support of their own 
opinions, and, on your replying, that this is a matter to be 
determined by the Holy See, he has written to us on the sub¬ 
ject. Now, if the inquirer knows what is the belief of Catho¬ 
lics with respect to teaching authority, which has been given 
by our divine Saviour to his church, and therefore with res¬ 
pect to its infallibility in deciding questions which belong to 
dogma, or to morals, he must know that the church cannot 
permit errors which it has carefully considered, judged and 
condemned to be again brought under discussion. This, too, 
is what has already been made known by our letters. For 
when we said, ‘ It cannot be denied or doubted that Jesus 
Christ himself, in order that he might apply to all generations 
of men the fruits of his redemption, built here on earth, upon 
Peter, his only church, that is, the one holy Catholic and apos¬ 
tolic church, and gave to him all power that was necessary for 
preserving whole and inviolate the deposit of faith, and for 


The Philosophy of 


182 

delivering the same faith to all peoples and tribes and nations.’ 
We thereby signified that the primacy, both of honor and of 
jurisdiction, which was conferred upon Peter and his succes¬ 
sors by the Founder of the church, is placed beyond the haz¬ 
ard of disputation. 

‘ 4 This, indeed, is the hinge upon which the whole question 
between Catholics and all who dissent from them turns, and 
from this dissent, as from a fountain, all the errors of the non- 
Catholics flow. For inasmuch as such bodies of men are des¬ 
titute of that living and divinely established authority which 
teaches mankind especially the things of faith and the rule 
of morals, and which also directs and governs them in what¬ 
ever relates to eternal salvation, so these same bodies of men 
have varied in their teaching, and their change and instability 
never cease. If, therefore, your inquirer will consider either 
the opinion which is held by the church as to the infallibility 
of its judgment in defining whatever belongs to faith or 
morals, or what we ourselves have written respecting the 
primacy and teaching authority of Peter, he will at once per¬ 
ceive that no room can be given at the council for the defense 
of errors which have already been condemned, and that we 
could not have invited non-Catholics to a discussion, but have 
only urged them to avail themselves of the opportunity 
afforded by this council, in which the Catholic church, to 
which their fore-fathers belonged, gives a new proof of its 
close unity and invincible vitality, and to satisfy the wants of 
their souls, by withdrawing from a state in which they cannot 
be sure of their salvation. If by the inspiration of divine 
grace they shall perceive their own danger, and shall seek 
God with their whole heart, they will easily cast away all pre¬ 
conceived and adverse opinions, and, laying aside all desires 
of disputation, they will return to the Father from whom they 
have long unhappily gone astray. We, on our part, will 
joyfully run to meet them, and embracing them with a 
Father’s charity, we shall rejoice, and the church will rejoice 
with us, that our children who were dead have come to life 
again, and that they who were lost have been found. This, 


God and tee World. 


183 


indeed, we earnestly ask of God, and do you, venerable 
brother, join your prayers to ours. In the meanwhile, as a 
token of the divine favor, and of our own especial benevolence, 
we most lovingly give to you and to your diocese our apostolic 
blessing. Given at St. Peter’s, in Rome, this the 4th day of 
September, 1869, in the twenty-fourth year of our Pontificate, 
Pope Pius IX.” 

Here sits Rome in her boasted insolence, who, by her claim 
of infallibility in judgment, has usurped the place of God, 
whom Paul describes as the “mystery of iniquity.” “The 
man of sin, sitting in the temple of God.” “I sit a queen, 
and shall see no. sorrow, and shall not know the loss of chil¬ 
dren.” As straying prodigals she invites and expects them all 
to return, and with these smooth words deceives the weak- 
minded that she is not what she always was ; and yet in this 
document we hear Pius IX declaring the changeless infalli¬ 
bility of the Papal system, and by the belief of this has the 
power of the Christian church been weakened and greatly 
scattered by conceding the delusive idea that there may be 
Christians and salvation in the Romish church; this sym¬ 
pathy with the great enemy of God, Christ, the Holy Ghost, 
the Bible, in a word to Christian and civil liberty in all ages, 
has in no small degree paralyzed the power of the Protestant 
church at the present day. “ Can a man take burning coals 
into his bosom and not be burned?” The voice "of God is, 
“ Come out of her my people, and be not partakers with her 
sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” This fearful 
prohibition of God is out against any identification with ‘ £ the 
mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.” Any 
sympathetic mark of her’s on the forehead or in the hand, 
ranks the man or woman wearing it among Christ’s enemies. 
Thus we have briefly indicated the events which are to 
transpire during what is called the time of the end, and are we 
not living in one strikingly answering the prophetic picture ? 


184 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER XIX. 

EVENTS WHICH MARK THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE PROPHETIC 
PERIODS, CONTINUED. 

We propose now more succinctly to examine those events 
which mark the commencement of the 1260, 1290 and 1835, 
days or years, all of which periods, as we have seen, begin at 
the same time. The principal and most prominent of these are 
the taking away the daily sacrifice and setting up the abomina¬ 
tion that maketh desolate, and which is the same as brought 
to view in the 2300 days, or the vision of the evening and the 
morning, showing the connection of all these periods. No 
one sentence could so adequately characterize the great system 
of Paganism as that here used by the prophet, “The daily 
sacrifice,” for no feature of its worship was so imposing, costly 
and perpetual as the sacrificial oblations continually offered 
by its priesthood. Neither can any one sentence so truly and 
forcibly describe Papacy as that here used, “The abomination 
that maketh desolate.” Now, if we are correct in their appli¬ 
cation, the conclusion is as follows: The 1260 years ended in 
1848, the 1290, being thirty years longer and commencing 
at the same time, runs to the year 1878, and marks some event 
connected with the Papacy not described in the prediction as 
we are aware of, and, therefore, we know nothing concerning 
it, only that the period will not expire till that year. 

The 1335 years also commenced with the same event, and, 
at the same time, and being seventy-five years longer, 
runs on till 1923, which is the extreme end of the pro¬ 
phetic periods. That Catholicism exists till the end of the 
world is evident from the following: “I beheld till the 
thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose 
garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like 


God and the World. 


185 


the pure wool; his throne was like the fiery flame, and his 
wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth 
from before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, 
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him ; the 
judgment was set and the books were opened. I beheld then 
because of the great words which the horn spoke ; I beheld 
even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given 
to the burning flame.” Here is the little horn, with all its 
hateful and abominable features unmodified, according to its 
own pretensions, a system of changeless infallibility, receiving 
her just reward at the last great judgment. This fact alone 
demonstrates that there can be no such thing as the world’s 
conversion to Christianity, unless that is made consonant with 
the existence of two hundred millions of Roman Catholics, 
and her history justifies us in the remark, that, if the whole 
race were converted to Catholicism, it would be nothing but a 
transplantation of hell upon earth. Then says the prophet, 
“I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was 
diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful , whose teeth 
were of iron, and his nails of brass, which devoured, break in 
pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet, and of the ten 
horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, 
and before whom three fell, even of that horn that had eyes, 
and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was 
more stout than his fellows. I beheld and the same horn 
made war with the saints, and 'prevailed against them , until 
the Ancient of Days came and judgment was given to the 
people of the saints of the Most High; and the time came 
that the saints possessed the kingdom ; thus he said the fourth 
beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall 
be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole 
earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces (how 
appropriate the names to such a monster Apollyon and Abad¬ 
don, a destroyer). And the ten horns out of his kingdom are 
ten kings that shall arise and another shall arise after them ; 
and he shall subdue three kings, and he shall speak great 
words against the Most High, and think to change times and 
24 


186 


The Philosophy of 


laws, and they shall be given into his hand, until a time 
and times and the dividing of time.” “And in the latter 
end of their kingdom (divided Greece), when the transgress¬ 
ors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance (little 
horn king) and understanding dark sentences, shall stand 
up and his power shall be mighty, hut not by his own power 
(it was the power of the host given unto him, or that of the ten 
Pagan kings), and he shall destroy wonderfully and shall 
practice and prosper, and shall destroy the mighty and the 
holy people (saints of God), and through his policy also he 
shall cause craft to prosper in his hand, and he shall magnify 
himskLf in his heart, and by peace destroy many ; he shall also 
stand up against the Prince of princes, but he shall be broken 
without hand (he shall be dashed in pieces by'Christ, the 
stone which was cut out of the mountain without hands), and 
the vision of the evening and morning is true, wherefore shut 
thou up the vision, for it shall be for many days.” 

“Arms shall stand on his part, and he shall pollute the 
sanctuary of strength (Paganism), and he shall take away 
the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that 
maketh desolate (here again is the destruction of Pagan¬ 
ism and substitution of Papacy described), and such as do 
wickedly against the holy covenant shall he corrupt by flatter¬ 
ies ; but the people that do know their God shall be strong 
and do exploits, and they that understand among the people 
shall instruct many (these constitute the real Christian church 
which Popery failed to corrupt, even by flatteries, or to make 
them believe and teach that this man-made, anti-Christian 
abomination, established by the sword of Constantine, Clovis 
and Justinian was the true church of Christ, and the instruc¬ 
tion of true Christians to this effect woke the ire and wrath of 
the “man of sin,” and what followed the next verse describes). 
“Yet they shall fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity 
and by spoil many days; and when they fall they shall be 
holpen with a little help ; but many shall cleave unto them by 
flatteries, even to the time of the end (to induce them to recant), 
and some of them of understanding shall fall to try them and 


God and the World . 


187 

to purge and make them white (such as Bishop Cranmer, who, 
when he was burned at the stake by the Papists, reached 
out the hand that had some time before signed a paper against 
the Protestants, and let it burn first); and the king shall do 
according to his will, and he shall exalt and magnify himself 
above every God, and shall speak marvelous things against 
the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be 
accomplished, for that that is determined shall be done. 
Neither shall he regard the god of his fathers (the god of the 
Pagans), nor the desire of woman (the celibacy of the priests) 
nor regard any god, for he shall magnify himself above all.” 
Or as Paul says of the “ man of sin“ He shall exalt him¬ 
self above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that 
he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that 
he is God.” Or as Jesus says: “When ye shall seethe 
abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, 
standing in the holy place,” the church of God, or professing 
to be that church, and, indeed, to be the only true church. 
Or, as Daniel has it again: “He (the little horn) waxed 
exceeding great toward the south and toward the east and 
toward the pleasant land, and it waxed great even to the host 
of heaven (the Christian church); and it cast down some of 
the host and of the stars to the ground and stamped upon 
them. Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the 
host; and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the 
place of his sanctuary was cast down ; and a host was given 
him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and 
it cast down the truth to the ground and it practiced and pros¬ 
pered. And I heard one saint speaking, and another saint 
said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be 
the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression 
of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be 
trodden under foot ? and he said unto me, unto two thousand 
three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” 

This inquiry concerns four distinct things which take place 
during this period, and terminate with it: First. “The daily 
sacrifice,” Paganism to be taken away. Second. “ The trans- 


188 


The Philosophy of 


gression of desolation,” Papacy set up. Third. The sanctuary 
to be trodden under foot. Fourth. The host also to be trodden 
under foot. The term “host,” in this passage, it will be seen, 
means two distinct powers. That called “ some of the host 
and of the stars which were to be cast down and stamped 
upon,” is the saints; but that designated as u a host” which 
the same power was to tread underfoot, means the ten Pagan 
kings of Eome, who gave their power to Papacy, and when 
obtained wielded it for the destruction of Paganism and estab¬ 
lishment of Papacy, and which not only trod the saints of God 
underfoot, but these very kings here called “a host,” which 
was given him. During the progress of these events the “ lit¬ 
tle horn” waxed exceeding strong, “ So that it trampled on all 
the kingdoms of the world, and exalted itself as the only law¬ 
ful ruler of nations, as well as the assumption that the Pope 
is the head of the church, which is the prerogative of Christ, 
who, if he must suffer this usurpation of the “man of sin,” 
shall nevertheless show, in his own time, who is the blessed 
and only Potentate , the King of kings and Lord of lords.” 
If Christ is the only Potentate, then the Pope, claiming to sit 
in his place, must be a usurper. It is also evident, from these 
concurrent passages of prophetic scripture, that the Papacy 
shall not only exist, but, in its ecclesiastical character, pros¬ 
per till the end of the world, having, however, prior to this, 
lost all its temporal power. In order to enable our readers the 
better to appreciate this subject, we here introduce some selec¬ 
tions from Dr. Marsh’s Ecclesiastical History. We quote him 
because he condenses from all other historians the events of 
ages in a small compass. “ Constantine became the advocate 
of Christianity, and the banner of the cross was displayed in 
all his armies, over all his enemies he was conqueror, and, for 
many years, the sole master of Home. In the year 324 he pub¬ 
lished edicts and laws by which the ancient religion of the 
Homans was abolished and Christianity (Papacy) established 
as the religion of the empire. That gigantic power which had 
hitherto been employed to crush it was now engaged to demol¬ 
ish the kingdom, of darkness and exalt Christ in the earth (if 


God and the World. 


189 

Papacy is Christ). The heathen temples were pulled down, 
images of gold and silver were melted and coined into money, 
great idols, curiously wrought, were brought to Constanti¬ 
nople and drawn with ropes through the principal streets for 
the scorn of the people, the heathen priests were cast out, des¬ 
pised and banished. Every place of power and trust in the 
state and army, which before had been tilled with heathen, 
was now occupied by professed followers of Christ. Immense 
and splendid Christian temples were everywhere erected and 
richly endowed, and the greatest honors were put upon 
preachers of the gospel. Constantine put an end to Pagan 
rites, sorcery and divination, (By him the daily sacrifice 
was taken away, Daniel xi) these great supports of false reli¬ 
gion, and the mysteries (Paganism, called by Paul “ the mys- 
tery of iniquity”) which had been kept secret were publicly 
exposed. 

Could the truly pious among them, however, have looked 
forward to the issue, and seen all the worldly magnificence 
operating as poison to the very vitals of the church, they would 
have lamented the change, and preferred to endure further 
trials. But the worldly-minded among them saw every thing 
in the change to gratify their pride and ambition, and hailed 
Constantine as the greatest of human benefactors. The revo¬ 
lution was one from which every thing which the Christian 
values might be hoped, but, alas! such is the depravity of 
human nature ; it was one in which almost every thing of 
Evangelical worth was lost. Constantine brought the world 
into the church, and the church was paralyzed. (Why do his¬ 
torians call this man-made system the Christian church, while 
the facts they record show it to be rightly named by the angel 
of the apocalypse, “Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of 
harlots and abominations of the earth?”) The body existed 
but the spirit had fied. Constantine set up an immense 
national church, but the humility of the age of Polycarp 
had passed away ; it could not be found in the church he had 
thus raised to worldly glory, and how could he create it there¬ 
by those means which always destroy vital piety ? 


The Philosophy of 


190 

The erection of splendid temples and introduction of a 
splendid worship, gave rise to a vast variety of additional 
rites and ceremonies, which in general were copied from the 
heathen worship, and such was the amalgamation of the two 
religions as to differ very little in their external appearance. 
(How appropriate her name, “ Babylon, the great,” which was 
so called because the city of ancient Babylon was built around 
the tower of Babel, at whose building God confounded the 
languages, producing such disorder and confusion that the 
work ceased ; hence the word “Babylon ” is here employed to 
signify the strange mixture and confusion of discordant ele¬ 
ments Constantine thus introduced into the church, and whic]||L 
instead of being the Christian church, developed the monster; 
“ The man of sin ” occupying the exalted place of God him¬ 
self, “ sitting in the temple of God and showing himself that 
he is God.”) Gorgeous robes, miters, wax tapers, crosiers, 
processions, lustrations, images, gold and silver vases, are 
mentioned as common to both Christian and heathen churches. 

What a deplorable degeneracy from the simple worship of 
the apostles. (Here was the falling away mentioned by Paul, 
brought about by the coming of “the man of sin.”) Two 
principles were here introduced into the church, which pro¬ 
pelled her in her downward course, and led brother to imbrue 
his hands in his brother’s blood, and this, too, thinking that 
he did God’s service. (This is what Christ said the abomina¬ 
tion of desolation, spoken of by Daniel, the prophet, would do 
when he came and stood in the holy place, Christian church, 
thus, “The time will come when he that killeth you will 
think that he doeth God’s service.”) The first of these 
principles was that it was an act of virtue to deceive and lie, 
when by that means the interests of the church may be pro¬ 
moted, and the other, that errors in religion, when maintained 
and adhered to after proper admonition, are punishable with 
civil penalties and corporal tortures. 

The barbarians, the Goths, Huns, Franks, Hurulians and 
Vandals, were idolaters and strangers to Christianity, and 
who in the year 476 made their incursions into the western 


God and the World. 


191 


part of tlie Roman empire, emigrating from the northern part 
of Europe, and who for more than half a century had been 
overspreading Italy, Gaul and Spain, and erecting new king¬ 
doms in these beautiful countries, concerned themselves but 
little about religion of any description, chiefly intent on 
wealth and power, and were for the most part induced to 
renounce their idolatry and become nominal, but wretched, 
Christians. One of the ten kingdoms, that of the Franks. 
Clovis, their king, had married Clotilda, niece of Gondeband, 
king of the Burgundians. Her own nation had already 
embraced Christianity, because they thought the God of the 
Romans more able to protect them against their enemies. 
(Such a motive could make Papists, but not Christians.) Under 
her influence at length, Clovis, fearing destruction in a coming 
battle with the Germans, prayed to Jesus Christ for victory, 
promising that if He would grant it he would become a 
Christian. Victory ensued, and he was baptized at Rheims 
with three thousand of his army, A. D. 496, but he was no 
honor to any religion. In 527 Justinian succeeded to the 
Roman empire, and was an eminent champion for the church, 
though he seemed himself to have been unacquainted with 
vital piety. He endeavored to bring all nations to nominal 
subjection to Christ; built sumptuous temples, and sup¬ 
pressed everywhere what remained of idolatry. (“ He plucked 
up the horns by the roots.”) Before the close of the sixth 
century the world was at ease, and superstition had made 
rapid strides. The great mass of ministers were excessively 
ignorant, and were led away by the strangest phantasies and did 
little but delude and destroy the people'. A thousand rites 
were performed, each of which was supposed to have had 
some wonderful power. A thousand relics were produced, 
whose touch, it was said, could heal the body and the mind. 
The most marvelous feats, called miracles, were performed. 
The most superstitious services were rendered to departed 
souls. Images of saints were worshiped, under the belief 
that such worship drew down their propitious presence. 
Tombs and 'graveyards were visited as the places most fre- 


192 


The Philosophy of 


quented by departed spirits, and were the grand rendezvous 
of the ignorant. The doctrine of purgatory for the purifica¬ 
tion of souls by fire, beyond the grave, had gained a strong 
hold on the minds of the multitude. 

We have here a true and unexaggerated picture of what is 
called the Christian church, from the nominal conversion of 
Constantine to that of Justinian, including his reign, and 
reaching nearly to the close of the sixth century; at least there 
was no important change took place from that event until his 
death, which was in the year 568. This church, instead of 
being established by Christ or his apostles, and by the preach¬ 
ing of the gospel, we here see was done by three notoriously 
wicked men, whose deeds prove them to have known nothing 
of experimental Christianity, Constantine, Clovis and Justin¬ 
ian, and whose converts were made by whole nations, not by 
the sword of the Spirit, changing the heart and mind, but by 
the sword of bloody and aggressive warfare. Indeed, the Cath¬ 
olic church never did believe in a change of heart, and does 
not at the present day ; in fact, she knows nothing about it. 
Belisarius, Justinian’s greatest general, marched against the 
Vandals, in Africa, in the year 538, conquered it, overthrew 
Paganism and established Papacy, called Christianity. In 
537 he also defeated the Ostrogoths, in Italy, and took Rome, 
which Gibbon says was a Catholic war, and resulted in the 
firm establishment of Papacy in the eternal city. In 538 he 
subdued the Huns, in Thrace, overthrew their religion, and 
also established Papacy in its stead. Thus was founded 
this man-made hierarchy, but instead of its being what the 
Papists claim for it, “the only true church,” it had not an 
element of Christianity in it, and it could not be the Christian 
church unless it had them all. Its doctrines are a mixture of 
Judaism, Paganism, heathen philosophy, and a very few of the 
truths of the gospel, and we feel a conscious misgiving in mak¬ 
ing even this admission, for, were we required to point out a 
single doctrine of this system unmixed with error we could' 
not do it. The fact is, the great Head of the church sent his 
angel to John, on the Isle called Patmos, to give it a name, by 



God and the World. 


193 


which, its character might be faithfully portrayed, and he bap¬ 
tized it “Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and 
abominations of the earth.” This figure expresses the unnatu¬ 
ral and unholy connection here developed between the con¬ 
quests by the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 
and the sword of aggressive and bloody warfare, which marked 
the advent of this curse of mankind, Popery, “the man of 
sin.” Its splendid and gorgeous appearance, pompous priest¬ 
hood and imposing ritualism is in the widest contrast to the 
Christian church. Jesus had said, and to that disciple, too, 
whom this establishment claims as its first Pope and founder: 
“Put up thy sword, for he that takes the sword shall perish 
by the sword ;” but this “ woman that reigneth over the kings 
of the earth,” in defiance of this authoritative mandate, drew 
it again and bathed it deep in the blood of the martyrs of 
Jesus. Jesus said if any man have not the spirit of Christ he 
is none of his. “ He was harmless and separate from sinners, 
meek and lowly in heart,” and the author of the precepts: 
“ If thine enemy hunger feed him, if he thirst give him drink. 
I say unto you resist not evil.” (How contrary is Papacy to all 
this.) It is true that this disciple Peter did manifest some of 
those traits of character which have belonged to the whole line 
of the Popes, and perhaps this is the greatest reason why he 
has been selected as the one upon whom to found their church. 
Peter also drew his sword at the capture of Jesus and cut off 
a man’s ear, intending, no doubt, it to be his head. On 
another occasion his contradiction of his master was so arro¬ 
gant that he was obliged to address him as his Satanic majesty. 
4 4 Get thee behind me Satan, for thou saverest not the things that 
be of God, but the things that be of men.” So strikingly have 
all the Popes (Peter’s successors) imitated this infernal spirit, 
that the center of Catholicity is characterized by the revelator as 
the place “ where Satan sitteth.” The fact is, outside of hell 
there never existed such an arrogant, proud, ambitious, relent- 
'lessly cruel and revengeful a spirit as that which has forever 
animated this anti-Christian abomination of the earth. 

It is a fact that multitudes of true Christians were deceived 
25 


194 


The Philosophy of 


at its sudden inauguration, really supposing it was what 
it professed to be, the church of Christ, and thereby came 
the “falling away” which was to follow the coming of the 
man of sin, whose very coming was to be “ after the working 
of Satan, with all signs and lying wonders, with all deceiv- 
ableness of unrighteousness,” as Paul describes it, or, accord¬ 
ing to the revelator, “ Mystery, the mother of harlots and 
abominations of the earth.” But others stood back and soon 
discovered its true character, and immediately commenced 
their protests, and by exposing her earthly, sensual and dev¬ 
ilish nature woke the deadly ire of the “little horn,” who, 
drawing her sword, shed the blood of so great a proportion of 
the saints and martyrs of Jesus, that when great Babylon 
came in remembrance before God to give unto her the cup of 
the wine of the fierceness of his wrath, it was said, “In her 
was found the blood of all them that were slain upon earth.” 
She hath shed the blood of the saints and the martyrs of 
Jesus, therefore give her blood to drink for she is worthy. 

The idea is as untrue as it is common, at least in our day, 
that the Catholic church, if it is not now a Christian church, 
was such originally, a real body of believers and followers 
of Christ, although the whole prophetic scriptures, as well as 
those of the New Testament, in the clearest possible manner 
and by the use of the strongest terms, represent it as in 
the widest contrast to the church of Jesus. Her converts were 
originally made by whole nations through the instrumentality 
of the sword and aggressive warfare, while those of the church 
of Christ are always made in one way, and that by the preach¬ 
ing of His mild gospel. “This is the power of God unto sal¬ 
vation to every one that believeth,” and is the only power by 
which God proposes to save men and adequate to change 
their nature. Some of these palpable contrasts run like the 
following: The Romish church is denominated “the man of 
sin,” while the church of Christ is “holy unto the Lord.” 
She is the abomination of desolation, while the church of 
Christ has been the suffering victim of her desolating power. 
She is the “little horn” which made war with the saints 


God and the World . 


195 


and prevailed against them, while the saints, the true church, 
fell martyred victims in the terrible conflict. Her coming was 
after the working of Satan, with a great sword in her hand, 
while the advent of the church of Jesus was heralded by the 
angelic proclamation ; not war, but peace on earth and good 
will to men. She established that Satanic piece of artfulness 
and cruelty, the court of the inquisition, while the saints 
of God were tortured and murdered by its racks and infernal 
machines, and starved in its dungeons. But why continue 
these contrasts, for if these do not show that this Romish hier¬ 
archy was never the church of Christ, but the most deadly 
anti-Christ, then nothing is susceptible of proof. Indeed, 
this monster of iniquity possessed such frightful proportions 
and unnatural features, that there was no beast God ever 
made adequately ferocious, blood-thirsty and terrible, by 
which it might be symbolized, and, therefore, it was necessary 
to use an imaginary one for the purpose, whose form was 
dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly, wdth great iron 
teeth, with ten horns, and a little horn that had eyes, and a 
mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, diverse from 
all the beasts that were before him, and whose look was more 
stout than his fellows. In reference to this fearful imagery, 
two facts must be borne in mind if we would arrive at the 
truth concerning it. One of which is, that it signifies a church 
of Christ, and the other is, that there is but two such churches 
recognized in the scriptures, namely, the true and false one, 
the conclusion of which is, that as no such imagery bears any 
likeness to the true church, it must signify the false, and 
therefore the Romish. That the Pope, as head of this cor¬ 
rupt church, still exists with all its arrogant and Godless pre¬ 
tensions, not only lording it over God’s heritage, but despotic* 
ally claiming to sway the scepter of universal empire over the 
kings of the earth, the following will show: 

The Pope held a consistory, composed of the college of car¬ 
dinals, at Rome, on the 28th of June, 1871, whom he addressed 
in a Latin allocution, in these words: “We are, my very 
dear brothers, in the hands of Divine providence. We have 


196 


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nothing to expect from human aid, for man has abandoned 
us. Why should we dissemble ? It is better I should tell 
you, that kings and governments, forgetting their promises r 
leave us to our fate. They have addressed us in tine phrases ; 
they sent us the warmest congratulations on the day of our 
jubilee, but they are far from taking any step in support of 
their messages. We can hope for no help from any quarter. 
King Victor Emmanuel will be here in a few days and will be 
attended by the Ministers of the Catholic states. We have 
done all that was within our power, but our efforts have failed ; 
all is lost. You may tell me, perhaps, that we have still hope 
in France, but France can do nothing ; she is going through a 
frightful crisis, which may be succeeded by others yet more 
dreadful. I repeat it, all is lost. Only a miracle can save us. 
Turn, then, to the Almighty, and seek this interposition from 
him.” 

How wonderfully striking has God revealed this picture of 
the Papacy, and to be developed as among the very last of 
human events. By the side of this, its fulfillment let us place 
it. Rev. 17 chapter: “And the ten horns which thou saw- 
est upon the beast are ten kings. These have one mind, and 
shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These 
shall agree and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the 
words of God shall be fulfilled. ” “ These shall hate the whore, 
and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her 
flesh and bum her with fire. The woman which thou sawest 
is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” 

Here these kings give her their power and strength, and 
which enables her to reign over them. They then turn against 
her, stripping her of all support and power, and which was to 
be the fulfillment of the words of God. The Pope says “ all 
is lost ,” and we add, that if he and his subjects had known 
the scriptures they might here read their history and doom, 
but, as “the man of sin,” they labor under the strong delu¬ 
sion which God has sent upon them, because they choose to 
believe a lie, and had “pleasure in unrighteousness, that they 
all might be damned,” and that it is the execution of this 


God and the Would . 


197 


decree, whicli constitutes the next great change in Roman 
Catholic history. Done at the judgment of the last great 
day. 


198 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER XX. 

THE EVENTS WHICH MARK THE COMMENCEMENT AND TERMI¬ 
NATION OF THE PROPHETIC PERIODS CONTINUED. 

The first event wliicli takes place, connected with the 2,300 
years, after the fulfillment of the 490, is called the “ daily sac¬ 
rifice,” meaning Paganism, and is always spoken of in con¬ 
nection with those symbols, representing Papacy ; also, to the 
effect that the former is superseded by the latter. This we 
find four times repeated in the prophecy of Daniel. Before 
quoting there connectedly, we propose briefly to indicate what 
they teach. We have already done this, but not as succinctly 
as to make them as they may be clearly understood. Pagan¬ 
ism was the religion of the Roman empire after, as well as 
before, its division into eastern and western or into the 
ten kingdoms, their subdivisions. That from the time of 
Constantine’s conversion, A. D. 320, till 586, the year the 
Visigoths of Spain became Catholic, as the last of the ten Pagan 
kingdoms thus converted (see World’s Progress, page 66), 
Papacy had now, and for the first time, either induced or com¬ 
pelled the whole ten Pagan kingdoms to submit to its author¬ 
ity.” Xow, having acquired the civil power of those kings, 
she turned it effectually against their Pagan religion, and des¬ 
troyed it as that of the empire, and set up Papacy in its stead. 
The power of these kings, thus transferred, is designated by 
the term “host,” in one of those passages, thus a host” was 
given him (the little horn) against the “ daily sacrifice ,” and it 
cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, 
and stamped upon them. This same event is thus given by 
the revelator, chapter xvii: “For God hath put in their 
hearts (the ten kings) to fulfill his will and to agree and to 
give their kingdom and strength unto the beast until the words 


God and the World. 


199 

of God shall be fulfilled.” As this agreement includes the 
whole ten of the Pagan kingdoms who gave their power., 
strength and kingdoms to the Papal beast, and as Spain, the 
last of these, was not thus subjected to Papal authority until the 
year 586, therefore, the periods 1,260,1,290 and 1,385, covering 
this authority, and this event marking their commencement, 
could have commenced at no other date. Now, supposing it 
consumed two years after the Papacy thus obtained the con¬ 
quest of Spain to fully settle and adjust her institutions to 
the new religion and national rule, which would be a very 
short time for such a work, then we would have, as the real 
date for its accomplishment, 588, resulting in the full estab¬ 
lishment of the little horn, or Papal power, which was not only 
to overthrow these kingdoms but to pluck them up by the roots , 
so that they, or any of them, could never again sprout or 
grow as Pagan kingdoms, which their subsequent history 
proves they did not. What remained, therefore, of the 2,300 
years, relating to the history of that power from this event 
until its overthrow, would be 1,260 years ; now, by adding these 
together, 588, 1,260 and 490, its first division, ending with the 
crucifixion, less 37, Christ’s age and ministry, we have 2,300, 
and commencing the 1,260 at the year 588, it also terminates in 
the year 1848, which presents a double argument in proof of 
the correctness of the application of the periods to these events. 

We now introduce the four passages themselves. Dan. viii, 
9, 12: “Out of one of them came forth a little horn, which 
waxed exceeding great, it waxed great even to the host of 
heaven, and it cast down some of the host and of the stars 
to the ground, and stamped upon them; yea, he magnified 
himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily 
sacrifice was taken away , and the place of his sanctuary was 
cast down, and a host was given him against the daily sacri¬ 
fice, and it cast down the truth to the ground ; and it practiced 
and prospered. Chap. 10, 31: “And arms shall stand on his 
part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and 
shall take away the daily sacrifice , and they shall place the 
abomination that maketh desolate in its stead.” 12,11: “And 


200 


The Philosophy of 


from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away , 
and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall 
be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.” 7, 13, 14: 
“ Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto 
that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision 
concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desola¬ 
tion, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden 
under foot ? and he said unto me, Unto two thousand three 
hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” The 
sanctuary, meaning a place where God is to be worshiped, 
here includes both the Jewish and Christian church, and 
which was to be trod under the feet of these powers, which 
was done by Paganism and Papacy ; these were the two sys¬ 
tems of the religion of the four universal monarchies, control¬ 
ling all the kings of those nations. “ And the woman which 
thou sawest is that great city that reigneth over the kings of 
the earth,” as she sits upon the beast and controls him, having 
the seven heads, ten horns, and the little horn, comprehending 
the four universal empires, and as Paganism and Papacy 
were the religions of all those, therefore the woman symbol¬ 
izes them both ; hence she is called the mother of abomina¬ 
tions, “the abomination of desolation,” Popery, and the 
Pagan abomination which preceded it. 

The kings of the earth which the woman trod under foot, 
here called “the host” as well as the sanctuary seen by the 
revelator while the treading was in progress, and concerning 
which the inquiry, “How long shall be the vision covering 
it?” the prophet was told it should be two thousand three 
hundred days (or years). Quoting the seven times of the Gen¬ 
tiles, Jesus says, “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the 
Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” As 
long, however, as this period is, it is not the full time, by two 
hundred and twenty years, this treading down was to last. 
The idea here is, that it should be 2,300 years yet, that is, from 
the time the prophet saw it while in progress and made the 
inquiry, and that it should be only 1,260 from the taking 
away of the Pagan and substitution of the abomination that 


God and tee World. 


201 

maketh desolate. How long shall it yet be concerning this 
abomination ? The whole period for this work, of which the 
others are parts, is twenty-five hundred and twenty years 
(2,520), and is a prediction of Moses, recorded in Lev. xxvi, 
and repeated four times in the chapter, of which the following 
is one: “And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, 
then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.” This 
treading down of the Gentiles, or subjugation of the Jewish 
nation by the Gentile kings, commenced by so clearly marked 
events that they furnish the best possible data for calculation, 
concerning which Jeremiah gives us the following prediction : 
Jer. xxv, 11, “And this whole land shall be a desolation and 
an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of 
Babylon seventy years.” 

The prophet Daniel was among the captives in Babylon, 
now suffering the fulfillment of this prediction, and thus 
refers to it: Dan. ix, 12,— “ In the first year of Darius, the son 
of Ahasuerus of the seed of the Medes, which was king over 
the realm of the Chaldeans, I, Daniel, understood by books the 
number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to 
Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy 
years in the desolations of Jerusalem.” This prediction began 
to be fulfilled at the commencement of the seventy years, and 
even before, and in the days of Manasseh, king of Judeah, 
and by the transpiration of such events which admit of no 
mistake. Thus, Jer. 1, 17: “Israel is a scattered sheep ; first 
the king of Assyria hath devoured him, and last, this 
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, hath broken his bones.” 

The fulfillment of these predictions is recorded 2d chap. 34, 
10, 11, thus: “And the Lord spake to Manasseh and to 
his people, but they would not hearken, wherefore the Lord 
brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of 
Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns and bound 
him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.” Here, there- 
foie, the predicted punishment of the seven times of Moses 
commenced, and which was the year B. C. 677. See chro¬ 
nology of this event on the margin of common Bibles. 

26 


202 


The Philosophy of 


But it must be remembered that Christ was born five years 
before the vulgar era, or the common account called Anno 
Domini. See also chronology of Christ’s birth as recorded by 
Matthew, on the margin of common Bibles, of that event. 
This, of course, would make the 677 years before the Chris¬ 
tian era proper five years less, and therefore 672 B. C. Now 
if we add to this 1,848, the year both of these abominations 
ceased, or the year the old world abolished the Jewish dis¬ 
ability act and the temporal power of Papacy, we have 2,520 
years, exactly the fulfillment of the seven times of Moses, a 
time meaning a Hebrew year of 360 days, seven times making 
2,520 days, thus fulfilled in years. Gabriel told Daniel that 
the two thousand three hundred days (years) were to com¬ 
mence from the “ going forth of the commandment to restore 
and build Jerusalem,” or, which is the same thing, that the 
four hundred and ninety, the first part of them, was then to 
commence. 

It was not to date from the time Cyrus made the decree, 
which was in the first year of his reign, B. C. 536, but the 
expression is from the going forth or execution of the decree, 
which was not till the reign of Artaxerxes, the successor of 
Cyrus and Darius. Ezra vii, 21: “ And I, even I, Artaxerxes, 
the king, do make a decree to all the treasurers which are 
beyond the river, that whatsoever Ezra the priest, the scribe 
of the law of the God of heaven, shall require of you, it be 
done speedily.” Chapters v and xiv, it is also said: “And 
they builded it and finished it (Jerusalem) according to the 
commandment of the God of Israel, according to the com¬ 
mandment of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes, king of Per¬ 
sia.” Here we see that the commandment did not “go forth” 
until the signature of Artaxerxes was attached to it, and which 
gives us the event for the commencement of the 2,300, and of 
course 220 years from the commencement of the 2,520, or seven 
times of Moses. Now, the date for the going forth of this 
commandment should be B. C. 452, but it is 457 see on mar¬ 
gin Ezra vii, 21, which records the event. But here, again, we 
must take five years from the 457, Anno Domini, because the 


God and the World. 


203 


birth of Christ, or real Christian era, was five years before this 
date, and therefore we have the whole period, ending 1848, 
because 452 and 1,848 makes 2,300, and which was to run to the 
cleansing of the sanctuary, of the temporal power of Papacy, 
which had trod Christ’s saints underfoot 1,260 years. 

Here we have the fulfillment of these two long periods, 
commencing with different events, well defined, as well as end¬ 
ing with such, and yet with the most astonishing accuracy, 
concurring with each other. If the self-complaisant skeptic 
refers these to mere coincidental circumstances, and not as con¬ 
taining demonstrative evidence of the Divine authenticity of 
the sacred scriptures, as well as bringing us near the great 
consummation of all things, we leave him to carry on the con¬ 
test with the author of inspiration, and we only ask to be 
delivered from any participation in his work or any share in 
his reward. Jesus says : “ Jerusalem shall be trodden down 
of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles shall be ful¬ 
filled .” Luke xxvii. Now, if we consider the fact that this 
treading down is the civil and political subjugation of the 
Jews, disqualifying them for citizenship among the nations, 
we find that the prediction has been literally fulfilled, and no 
more so than it is a fact that since the year 1848, including it, 
the disabilities of the Jews have been removed by all nations ; 
even the Sultan of Turkey has granted permission to the Jews 
to build a temple on Mount Zion, all of which clearly show 
that the seven times of the Gentiles have ended, and the Jews 
stand on an equality with all other nations of the earth. The 
Jews of all the world might to-day go, if they chose, and live 
in Palestine. Of course this would be an impossibility, from 
the fact that the whole land would not support a tenth of 
them. 

In this period we have the 1,260 years, covering the history 
of the Pagan abomination, and the 1,260, that of the Papal, 
making 2,520 together. To show the correspondence between 
this last 1,260, belonging to Papacy, and the 2,300, add the 1,260 
ending in the year 1848 to 588, its commencement, and the 453 
ending with the Christian era, as the part of the seventy weeks 


204 


The Philosophy of 


reaching to the birth of Christ, and we have as the result 2,300, 
at the end of which the sanctuary, or Christian church, was 
to be cleansed of the civil power of Papacy, so that it should 
no more sway its iron sceptre in the holy place, or rigorously 
persecute saints with civil penalties for opposing her abomina¬ 
ble doctrines and more abominable spirit and practice, at which 
time, also, this power was to cease its reign over the kings of 
the earth, both of which was accomplished or completed in 
1848. 

Every one at all acquainted with history knows that the 
kings of Babylon, Media and Persia, Greece and Rome, down 
to the days of Constantine the Great, were under the power of 
the Pagan priesthood, symbolized by the woman who sat upon 
the scarlet-colored beast, reigning over the kings of the earth. 
But as powerful as this was it did not compare with that 
wielded by the little horn, which “was diverse from all the 
other beasts” (kings) “ whose look was more stout than his 
fellows, and there were no beasts able to stand before him,” 
but he cast down the kings and all their hosts to the ground and 
stamped upon them ; he also cast down the “ truth” and the 
“saints” to the ground and stamped upon them. The host 
(the ten Pagan kings) was given into his hands, the sanctuary 
also, the church of God, against whom he made war and pre¬ 
vailed 1,260 years. The first 490 of the 2,300, as we have 
seen, were appropriated to the Jews, and reached to the year 
37 A. D., the end of the Jewish and commencement of the 
Gentile dispensation. It now passes along, marking no other 
event until the coming up of the little horn, among the ten, at 
whose inauguration three of them were plucked up by the 
roots, leaving seven upon the dragon, which by the arms of 
Justinian continued to be overthrown until the last, the Visi¬ 
goths, of Spain, fell, A. D. 588. The beast now has only one 
head and one horn, and the head wounded to death. The 
expression, “He waxed great even to the host of heaven !’ sig¬ 
nifies that his exploits were of a religious character, the term 
“heaven” meaning a religious source, whether true or false, 
when used as a figure, while the term “earth,” thus employed, 


God and the World. 


205 


signifies civil authority. We have an illustration of this in the 
13th of Revelations : “ And the earth helped the woman (the 
true church), and opened her mouth and swallowed up the 
waters (peoples) which the dragon cast out of his mouth, that 
he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.” The 
lamb-beast came up out of the earth — republican France and 
Italy, who had thrown off the Papal yoke. That this is the 
meaning of the term “ heaven,” when figuratively employed, is 
further confirmed by the following: “And there appeared 
another wonder in heaven , and behold a great red dragon, 
having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his 
heads, and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, 
and did cast them to the earth.” 

This casting down of the stars is also described as the work 
of the little horn : “ And it cast down some of the stars to the 
ground and stamped upon them,” proving the identity of these 
two powers. Of this latter it is said: “ Arms shall stand on 
his part, and he shall pollute the sanctuary of strength.” 
The Pagan temples and worship, which had been sustained by 
the civil power of Chaldea, Media and Persia, Greece and 
Rome, for the long period of 1,260 years, but now overthrown 
by the abomination that made desolate, which was established 
in its place. The polluting the sanctuary of strength, the 
Pagan temples and religion, was done in the days of Constan¬ 
tine, as we have seen, by taking the idol gods of the temples, 
putting ropes around their necks, and in derision dragging 
them through the streets of Constantinople. 


206 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER XXI. 

THE DAYS OF TRIBULATION SHORTENED. 

As corrupt and cruel as was Paganism, the Papal abomina¬ 
tion succeeding it was much more so. This idea is contained 
in the prediction, “ He (the little horn) shall pollute the sanc¬ 
tuary of strength , Paganism, taking it (the daily sacrifice) 
away,” and placing in its stead the “ abomination that maketh 
desolate,” by whose power the saints shall “fall by the 
sword, by flame, by captivity and by spoil many days,” 1,260 
years. This distress of the Christian church is that to which 
Jesus refers in the 24th of Matt.: “ When ye therefore shall 
see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel, the 
prophet, stand in the holy place (church); whoso readeth let 
him understand, for then shall be great tribulation such as 
was not since the beginning of the world, even to that same 
time, no, nor ever shall be, and except those days should 
be shortened, there shall no flesh be saved.” 

By this reference we see that in the days of the Saviour, the 
little horn abomination, which was thus to desolate the Chris¬ 
tian church, had not come, and that when it did come it would 
inflict a more dreadful tribulation upon the church of God 
than she had ever before or should ever again witness. This 
infliction is thus described: “I beheld (says Daniel, to whom 
Jesus refers us for its history,) and the same horn made war 
with the saints and prevailed against them, and he shall speak 
great words against the Most High, and shall wear out 
the saints of the Most High, and they shall be given into 
his hand until a time, times, and the dividing of time,” the 
period covering this dreadful tribulation of Christ’s saints, 
but he said it should be shortened for the elect’s sake, which 
was done by the reformation at least 260 years. Had not this 


God and the World. 


207 


been done “no flesh should be saved.” It was the tribulation, 
and not the period, which was thus shortened. This is proved 
by what is said in Mark: “But in those days , after the tribu¬ 
lation ,” etc. 

By the expression “the earth helped the woman,” we 
understand is meant that those kings who had submitted to 
the domination of the Popes during the thousand years of the 
dark ages, being those symbolized by the dragon chained for 
a thousand years, now began to sunder those chains of the 
Pope and act independent of his power and authority. This 
commenced with England in the reign of Elizabeth, and was 
followed by all the kings of Europe, the last of which threw 
off the temporal power of the Pope in 1848. During her 
reign Protestantism was flrmly established in her dominions, 
and was favored and supported by her in other parts of 
Europe ; by a bill of Parliament the Catholics were forever 
excluded from holding any office in the nation, Episcopacy 
was established as the religion of the State, free toleration was 
granted to all Protestant dissenters. This is hailed by English 
Protestants as the most glorious epoch in her history. But, 
before this, many innovations against Papacy and in favor of 
civil and religious liberty had been made. In 1566 the terrors 
of the inquisition compelled the nobility of the Belgic 
provinces to form an association for the purpose of gaining 
some religious liberty. To quell their tumults a powerful 
army was sent from Spain, under the command of the Duke 
of Alva. A bloody war ensued, and under the heroic conduct 
of the Prince of Orange both the Spanish and the Roman 
yoke were cut off, and the reformation was completely estab¬ 
lished upon the German model. This was in 1578. Mary, 
queen of Scots, was beheaded in 1587, she being a violent 
Papist, Elizabeth succeeded to the throne. The Spanish 
Armada was destroyed in 1588, which was sent to crush out 
Protestantism in England and to restore Papacy. In 1588 the 
first newspaper was published in England. The dark ages 
had ended and light began to shine. In 1588 an alliance was 
formed with Henry the II, in favor of Protestantism. In 1588 


208 


The Philosophy of 


Denmark became Christian. In 1588 Paris revolted. These 
powerful events were iminently conducive to put an end to the 
persecuting power of Rome, and it is a significant fact, to say 
the least, that from the year Spain became Catholic, 588, as the 
last of the ten Pagan kingdoms, which event gave the Pope his 
temporal power, and 1588, the year the events just described 
occurred, was just 1,000 years, exactly corresponding to the 
1,000 years during which the dragon was chained, and, as 
we shall see when we come to examine the 20th chap, of 
Revelation, is the same event, namely, Papacy binding Pagan¬ 
ism and usurping the power of her kings. Here, therefore, 
“the earth helped the woman.” The civil governments 
defended the church against the persecutions of Rome, and, 
according to Jesus, the tribulation of those days were shortened 
from 1,260 to 1,000 years. But still the Pope was a king, and 
the king of kings, as is claimed for him, clothed with real tem¬ 
poral power, though very much curtailed, and which, during 
all the reformation, was not once called in question, until the 
year 1848, when it was made the prominent, and indeed, the 
only, objection against the Pope in the revolution of that year. 

As the history of the events thus alluded to are not, as we 
are aware, written in book form, we are therefore under the 
necessity of quoting them from the files of the newspapers of 
that date, and with but little arrangement, consisting princi¬ 
pally of telegraphic dispatches, but as these present the his¬ 
tory of those times clearly and very much condensed, it suits 
our purpose best. We give them as follows: “Foreign 
news. Italy, June 8, 1847. Disturbances had taken place at 
Leghorn, on the publication of the decree relative to the press. 
The people cried, ‘ long live the grand duke,’ and then went to 
the house of the Austrian Council, and shouted ‘ death to the 
Austrians.’ The governor forbade the procession which had 
been projected for the 13th, in honor of the Pope’s birthday ; 
but, notwithstanding this, the people assembled in crowds and 
shouted, ‘ long live the Pope, long live Italy, down with Aus¬ 
tria.’ The dragoons had to be called out to disperse the assem¬ 
bly. The excellent example of the great and good Pope is 


God and the World. 


209 

already beginning to be imitated by the princes of Italy.” 
Another arrival, June 20th. Italy. “The nobility have 
begun to see their mistake, and, convinced that opposition is 
useless, they are now about to show, by a single demonstra¬ 
tion, that they are more determined adherents of the Pope 
than are the people themselves.” It must be remembered that 
the Pope was now the leader of constitutional and liberal 
government in Europe. We make this remark so that those 
things relative to him may be better understood, as we pass 
along the history of these times. “ June 17th will be the first 
anniversary of the great decree of amnesty, and on that day 
they (the Italian princes) are preparing, at their own expense, 
to make a grand show of their adhesion to the Pope.” The 
following proclamation was published on the 10th, at Rome, 
by the Pope: “ Pius the IX, the Pontiff, in the course of two 
years, has received from you, my subjects, so many proofs of 
love and faith, that he is not deaf to your desires and fears. 
We never cease to meditate within ourselves how to develop, 
most usefully and consistently with our duties to the church, 
those civil institutions which are established ; not forced by 
necessity, but from the desire for the happiness of our people, 
and the esteem we felt for their noble qualities. We also 
turned our thoughts to the re-organization of the army, before 
even public opinion demanded it, and we have sought the means 
of obtaining the services of foreign officers to aid those who 
honorably serve the pontifical government, the better to extend 
the sphere of those who can bring their talents and experience 
to bear on public reforms. 

We had also taken measures to increase the laical part of 
our council of ministers. If the unanimous will of the princes, 
to whom Italy owes the new reforms, is a guarantee of the 
preservation of those boons received with so much applause, 
we cultivate it by maintaining and consolidating the most 
amicable relations with them. Nothing, in short, which may 
be conducive to the tranquillity and dignity of the state will 
ever be neglected. 0, Romans, and faithful subjects of your 
father and sovereign, who has given you the most certain 
27 


210 


The Philosophy of 


proofs of liis affection, and is ready to give you more, if he 
be worthy to obtain more from God, that he may inspire your 
hearts, and those of all the Italians, with the pacific spirit of 
his wisdom ; but he is ready at the same time to resist by 
means of the institutions already conceded, all disorderly vio¬ 
lence, as he would also resist demands contrary to his duties 
and to your happiness. Listen, then, to the paternal voice 
that admonishes you, nor be moved by that cry that proceeds 
from unknown mouths to agitate the people of Italy, with the 
terror of foreign war aided and prepared by internal conspira¬ 
cies, or by the malignant ignorance of those who govern; this 
is indeed deceit, to impel you by terror to seek public safety 
in disorder; to confound, by tumult, the councils of your 
ruler, and to prepare, by creating confusion, pretexts for a 
war, that could never, by any other motive, impend over Italy, 
so long as bound by gratitude and confidence, uncorrupted by 
violence, unites the strength of the people, the wisdom of 
princes, the sacredness of right; but we, principally we, the 
head and sovereign Pontiff of the most holy Catholic religion, 
should we not have these in our defense ? If we were injuri¬ 
ously attacked, our innumerable sons would defend the cen¬ 
ter of Catholic unity, like the house of their fathers. 

It is, indeed, a great blessing among the many which heaven 
hath imparted to Italy that scarce three millions of our sub¬ 
jects have two hundred millions of brothers, of every nation 
and of every tongue. This was in more dangerous times, 
and in the confusion of the old Homan world, the safeguard 
of Home. It is for this that the ruin of Italy was never 
complete, and this will ever be her defense so long as this 
apostolic See shall reside in her center. (Yet in less than three 
months the Pope had lost all power to call these his subjects 
from any part of the world to Home.) O thou great God, 
shower thy blessings upon Italy, and preserve for her this 
most glorious boon of all faith; bless her with the benedic¬ 
tion that thy vicar prostrate before thee humbly demandeth. 
Bless her with the benediction of the saints who protect her, 
the apostles whose glorious relics she preserves, the incarnate 


God and the World. 


211 


Son who sent his representative on earth to reside in this 
same city, Rome, ask of thee.” The following is the consti¬ 
tution of Rome given, or promised, by Pope Pius the IX: 
“The college of cardinals are to be chosen by the Pope, and 
constitutes the senate, and is inseparable from the same, and 
two deliberative councils for the formation of the laws are to 
be established, consisting of a high council and the council of 
deputies. The judicial tribunals are to be independent of 
the government, and no extraordinary commission courts are 
to be established in the future. The national guard is to be con¬ 
sidered an institution of the State. The Pope convokes and pro¬ 
rogues the legislative chamber, and dissolves the council of 
deputies, being required to convoke a new council within 
three months, which will be the ordinary duration of the 
annual session. The sessions are to be public. The members 
of the senate are to be appointed by the Pope for life, and 
their number to be unlimited. The qualification for a senator 
is thirty years of age and the plenary exercise of civil rights.” 
June 17th, 1848. News from Italy. The news of the French 
republic at Rome. Letters from Rome of March 16th state 
that the intelligence of the events of Paris having been 
received by the French consul at Civita Yecchia, the entire pop¬ 
ulation immediately repaired to the Academy of France to 
proclaim the French republic. An address to the senate had 
just been prepared and presented to the Pope, demanding the 
grant of the long-promised constitution. The following was 
the reply of the Pope: “Events have succeeded each other 
and have hurried on to a conclusion that justify the demand 
addressed to me by the senators. Every body knows that I 
have been necessarily engaged in giving the government the 
reforms demanded by those gentlemen and required by the 
people. But every one must understand the difficulty encount¬ 
ered by him who unites two supreme dignities. 

“ What can be effected in one night in a secular state cannot 
be accomplished without mature examination in Rome, in con¬ 
sequence of the necessity to fix a line of separation between 
the two powers, ecclesiastical and temporal. Nevertheless, I 


212 


The Philosophy of 


hope that within a few days the constitution will be ready, 
and that I shall be able to proclaim a new form of government, 
calculated to satisfy the senate and the people, and I shall be 
more satisfied, as chief of the universal church, than as a tem¬ 
poral prince.” It is perfectly evident from this that the great- 
struggle in the mind of the Pope was the relinquishment of 
being a temporal ruler; this was the only question agitated at 
the time, and was that and nothing less which the senate and 
Roman people demanded. It is also evident that the Pope had 
substantially promised this, but that he was honest is very 
questionable. If he was, why had he now waited two years, 
and thus delayed its fulfillment ? It seems that he was too 
wise not to understand that civil liberty implies religious also, 
and surely, such a state of things would have been incom¬ 
patible with the infallible and unchanging government of the 
Romish church. The Pope would no doubt have succeeded in 
his deceptive delay had not the wave of freedom come rush¬ 
ing over the Alps from Paris, but now something definite must 
be done. This he felt, and hence one of two things, either 
abandon his temporal power, which would be the result of giv¬ 
ing the Roman states the constitution he had promised, 
or fly from Rome and wait the destiny of coming events, 
which might make his position more favorable. To do the 
first was impossible, and therefore he adopted the last as a 
necessity. He dressed himself in the disguise of a servant, 
and fled to Naples in the night. 

Paris, February 28th, 1848. “ A communication addressed 
to the provisional government: Gentlemen. The people of 
Paris having destroyed, by their heroism, the last vestige of 
foreign innovation, I hastened from the land of exile, to place 
myself under the banner of the republic just proclaimed, with¬ 
out any other ambition than that of serving my country. I 
announce my arrival to the members of the provisional gov¬ 
ernment, and assure them of my devotedness to the cause they 
represent, as well as my sympathy for their persons. Louis 
Napoleon Bonaparte. 5 ’ The battle that established the repub¬ 
lic was fought on the 22d, 23d and 24th of February, 1848. 


God and the World. 


213 

Foreign news to the 15th of February. Italy. A placard: 
‘ 4 Sicilians, the time for petitioning has gone by. Protestations, 
supplications, pacific demonstrations, are useless. Ferdinand 
has treated all with contempt, and we are reduced to necessity. 
Shall we hesitate to claim our legitimate rights \ To arms! 
sons of Sicily. Our combined force will be invincible. The 
12th of January, 1848, at the break of day, will mark the glo¬ 
rious era of our regeneration. Palermo will receive, with 
transports, all the Sicilians in arms, and will present them¬ 
selves to support the common cause, and establish the reforms 
and institutions which are in accordance with the progress and 
well being of Italy and of Europe, and of Pius the IX. Union, 
order, obedience to the chiefs, respect for property. Bobbery 
is high treason against the country, and will be punished as 
such. Whoever is in want will be relieved at the common 
charge. Heaven cannot fail to favor our just cause. Sicil¬ 
ians, to arms!” 

Letters from Borne of the 11th, mention a report that Aus¬ 
tria had demanded permission to march 30,000 men through 
the Papal dominions to the Neapolitan territory, and that a 
large number of the cardinals were in favor of consenting to 
it, but the Pope peremptorily refused. It was on the 29th 
that the decree of the king of Naples proclaimed the constitu¬ 
tion ; the same date it was announced at Borne that the Pope 
had given the civic guard of that city a battery of four pieces 
of artillery. The Pope has written to the archbishop of 
Milan reproving him for his coldness in the liberal cause, say¬ 
ing, that on the occasion of the massacres of the 30th of June, 
he should have gone into the streets fully robed, surroundec 
by his clergy to protect the people.” Denmark. “ King Fred¬ 
erick on the 7th commenced his reign by an act of clemency 
which argues well for his constitutional spirit. By a roya' 
rescript all proceedings now pending for political ofienses, c 
violations of the laws which regulate the press, are to 1 
at once canceled and annulled. On the 28th the king sig’ 
an ordinance by which he grants a constitution to his state 

Two weeks later. ‘ ‘ The republic confirmed in France. Fli 


214 


The Philosophy of 


of the royal family and ministers. Tlieir arrival in England. 
Adhesion of the clergy to the republic. Recognition of the 
republic by the United States, England, Belgium and Switz¬ 
erland. Universal suffrage and vote by ballot. Rising in 
Bavaria. A constitution forced from the king at the point of 
the bayonet. The revolution is the act and deed of the working 
class, w T ho have sealed its inauguration with their own blood.” 
London Times. “ Italy. The Jesuits, alarmed by the hostile 
demonstrations made against them by the people, have already 
quitted the city of Turin. The journals of Turin fully appre¬ 
ciate the tendency of the French revolution, and are now 
encouraging the king to put himself at the head of the 
national forces to effect the salvation of Italy.” April 22d. 

‘ ‘ Nine days later, from Europe. Revolution in Holstein. Rev¬ 
olution in Warsaw, Poland. Nicholas attacked. Revolution 
in Lombardy. Things in England. Troops sent to Scotland. 
Attempt at revolution in Belgium. Insurrection in Spain. 
News by the Acadia. Progress of the revolution. March of 
the Sardinian army into Lombardy. Declaration of war against 
Austria. Charles Albert raising an army of 250,000 men. 
Savoy declares a republic.' Prussia encourages the Poles; 
50,000 soldiers in the field. Madrid. Reported flight of 
Queen Christina. Sicily separated from Naples. An army to 
be raised in France. The Irish deputation in France. Prussia. 
National assembly. A letter from Berlin, of the first, says: 
4 The government has just adopted the principle of universal 
suffrage, with two decrees of elections. The number of soldiers 
killed in the Berlin revolution, May 17, 1848, was 132 officers 
and 575 men.’ The exclusion of the Jesuits from Rome had 
been decreed by the Pontifical government, on the 30th. Feb. 
10th. The Pope escaped from the capitol at Rome in the dis¬ 
guise of a servant. He left on the morning of the 24th, and 
on the 25th arrived at Gaeta, the largest town in the Neapoli¬ 
tan territory. In the Roman states the republican feeling 
has reached the highest point of excitement, and the execu¬ 
tive committee has assumed the Papal authority, which 
altogether sets aside the Pope. He is deposed and a republic 


God and the World. 


215 


established. The assembly of the provisional government of 
Rome passed the following decree on the deposition of the 
Pope, dated February 9, 1849: ‘Article 1st. The popedom 
has fallen, in fact as well as in law, from the temporal gov¬ 
ernment of the States. Article 2d. The Roman Pontiff will 
en j.°y guaranties necessary to the exercise of his spiritual 
power. Article 3d. The form of the government of the 
Roman States will be pure democracy, and will take the glo¬ 
rious name of the Roman republic. Article 4th. The Roman 
republic will have, with the rest of Italy, the relations which 
a common nationality require.’ There was a great demon¬ 
stration on the 11th in honor of the republic, and the decrees 
relating to it were read from the capitol. The people loudly 
applauded the article providing for the independence of the 
Pope’s spiritual power. On the 12th a grand Te Deum was 
chanted at St. Peter’s, on the occasion of the proclamation of 
the republic. ’ ’ March 15tli. ‘ ‘ From his residence at Gaeta the 
Pope demands the intervention of Austria to reseat him in his 
temporal power, but both France and Sardinia strongly remon¬ 
strate against this determination. As for the Roman people, 
they seem to have lost all reverence for the Pope as an eccle¬ 
siastic no less than a prince. The spiritual anathemas which 
he had hurled against them have been treated with contempt.” 
What a change had come over the Pope ; but a few months 
before this the praises of the good and liberal Pope, Pius the 
IX, were upon every tongue, but now see how his natural 
hatred of liberty manifests itself, and only called out by the 
people requiring him to fulfill his promises, which were spe¬ 
ciously promulgated without solicitation on their part. 


216 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER XXII. 

REVOLUTIONS IN EUROPE CONTINUED. 

“France, lOth inst. Louis Napoleon is chosen president of 
the French republic. The vice-president was elected by the 
Legislative Assembly, to hold his office till the second Sunday 
in the month of May, 1852. The project of the Catholic 
powers of Europe, to be convened at Gaeta, to determine on 
steps to be taken to re-instate the Pope in his dignity again, is 
confidently spoken of here. Arrival of the America. The 
French Assembly voted an appropriation of one million 
francs, to enable the government to meet the expense of put¬ 
ting the expedition to Civita Vecchia on a war footing, was 
passed by a majority, in favor of the government, of 112 
The government has determined also to send an army of 14,000 
to Rome to assist the Pope, General Oudinot to take com¬ 
mand.” We quote here an editorial of the same date which 
presents, in a proper light, the nature of the project and the 
inconsistency of France, as a republic, in undertaking to crush 
the sister republic of Rome, and to restore a prince, Pius the 
IX, who had proved false to all his professions in favor of lib¬ 
erty, and his promises to grant the people constitutional privi¬ 
leges. “ Rome once more fallen! Our telegraph dispatch in 
another column confirms the almost incredible report that the 
French ministry have determined to send an army for the. pur¬ 
pose of restoring the Pope to the temporal throne of the Roman 
States. The National Assembly consulted and voted for the 
project, notwithstanding the efforts of the faithful and consist¬ 
ent republicans to defeat it. France is ruled now by legitima- 
tists and intriguers, who ceaselessly make ready the day of 
fearful reckoning. The government is mad and doomed. So 
Rome falls once again; falls, but not forever. The kingly 
authority carries its own death warrant within its pomp and 


God and the World. 


217 


pretense, whether exercised by priest or layman. When the 
time comes for it to disappear, armies can as little preserve it 
as can paper decrees, and the legitimate office of a prince is to 
prepare for a day when there shall be no princes, to train, edu¬ 
cate, fortify and elevate the people committed to his charge, 
in order that they may be fully ready to govern themselves 
when they are called to undertake it. But what prince has 
ever ruled with purpose so large and noble. Pius the IX is 
now restored, or soon will be, by the aid of foreign armies. 
He could not allow his own subjects to engage in war against 
Austria, for Italian independence, because war did not consist 
with his character as head of the Catholic church and Vicar of 
the crucified Nazarene. He has now, however, not scrupled 
to resort to war upon those very subjects, and for his own res¬ 
toration to an earthly throne. Liberty but a few months ago 
made his name her word of encouragement to her toiling, baf¬ 
fled, but never despairing children, but she repeats that name 
no longer. The prince of Rome has gone over to the other 
princes of the earth. This is no religious question, however 
zealous the efforts to make it such. The church depends not 
for her power upon the sway of earthly authority, and requires 
no royal splendors to enhance her glory, and let the prejudices 
of the world say what they will, the Catholic Pontiff would 
occupy a far grander and freer possession as simply the suc¬ 
cessor of St. Peter, than as the monarch of the Roman States, 
from time immemorial the worst governed country in Italy, if 
not in the world.” About Louis Napoleon. “ The firmness 
of Louis Napoleon has thus far belied the predictions of his 
enemies and the hopes of his friends (thus did the world won¬ 
der at this deceiving ‘lamb-beast’). In a recent conversation 
he is stated to have said : ‘ The legitimists have protected me 
as a means of destroying the system which is closing around 
me ; the red republicans have voted for me to save themselves 
from the martial law of Cavaignac. I have been used to keep 
up the rotten walls, and to protect them from falling on each 
other. They thought me a wedge of wood, but they will find 
me a wedge of iron.’ ” 

28 


218 


The Philosophy of 


Proclamation. Just before the French, squadron got under 
way from Marseilles for Civita Vecchia, Gen. Oudinot issued 
a proclamation in which he tells his troops that the govern¬ 
ment, being resolved to maintain, in all quarters of the globe, 
their old and legitimate influence (the schemes of this image 
to the beast, like the beast before him, embraces the whole 
world ; Napoleon, in the place of the Pope, is to maintain his 
legitimate influence in all parts of the globe), would not allow 
the Italian people to be at the mercy of a foreign power, or of 
a party which is but a minority. It is confided to our charge, 
said he, to unfold the French flag in the Roman territory as a 
striking symbol of our sympathies. “He speaks as a dra¬ 
gon.” News by the Hibernia, May 7, 1849. “Four more 
French steamers sent to Civita Vecchia with five thousand 
more infantry, two batteries of artillery, and several squadrons 
of cavalry. Excitement in Rome. The news of the arrival 
of the French has created a great sensation at Rome, where 
20,000 men were under arms to meet them. The French com¬ 
mander proclaims a mission rather peaceful than otherwise 
(he was like a peaceful lamb, but only in pretension, for we 
will soon see how he ‘ speaks like a dragon ’), and it is under¬ 
stood that the Pope will be expelled, or be compelled to grant 
not only amnesty but desirable reforms. (Thus he deceived 
them that had the mark of the beast, his own people.) At 
the suggestion of Mazzina the assembly resolved, in con¬ 
formity with the new constitution, that though thoroughly 
determined to resist the union of the temporal and spiritual 
power in one and the same person , they were ready to assure 
the Pope the full and perfect exercise of his ecclesiastical 
power.” This shows that the whole question in this war was 
in regard to the temporal power of the Pope. 

The advance of the French army toward Rome had been 
checked by the resistance of the republicans of the Roman 
States. In the encounter the French were driven back with 
great loss, and Captain Oudinot, a relative of the general, was 
taken prisoner. Gen. Oudinot, unprepared for such a recep¬ 
tion, had withdrawn his troops four leagues from the city, and 


God and the World. 


219 

was there waiting for reinforcements and further instructions 
from his government. The French had 180 killed and 400 
wounded. On the 26th, the Roman constitutional assembly, 
in consequence of the communication made by the committee, 
commit to the Triumvirate the office of saving the republic, 
and repelling the invasion force by force, during the sit¬ 
tings. Statement of Mazzina on Oudinot’s mission. The 
Triumvirate had received a deputation of three of Gen. 
Oudinot’s officers, who, on being requested to assign a reason 
for the-occupation of Civita Yecchia by an armed force, said, 
that the first reason was to preserve the Roman States from 
Austrian invasion, which was already meditated and being 
prepared ; that the second was to ascertain precisely what were 
the sentiments of the population with regard to the form of 
government they judged most convenient for them, and to 
seek and put in train a perfect reconciliation between Pius the 
IX and the Roman people.” Or, as the revelator has it, “ To 
make an image to the beast which had the wound by the 
sword, and to give it life.” “ On the 27th. The constitutional 
assembly resolved to adhere to their resolution of opposing 
the entrance of the French into Rome, and to continue the 
preparations for the defense. Orders had been issued to 
undermine the Melvein bridge and the approaches on the sea¬ 
board side. Barricades with cannon are erected on the road 
to Civita Yecchia. 

“The long, covered gallery erected by Pope Borgia between 
the castle of St. Angelo and the Yatican palace has been 
blown up by powder, and the materials used to block up the 
avenues to the city. A deputation of the central committee 
had protested against the invasion, and informed General Oudi- 
not that Rome would resist his entrance by force, and would 
blow up the Yatican and St. Peter’s, which were already under¬ 
mined. The General replied that his instructions were imper¬ 
ative, and that he would enter Rome by force if not quietly 
received.” Thus speaking like a dragon, he said, whomso¬ 
ever would not worship the beast, to which he was now going 
to give life, should be killed. A correspondent of the Daily 


220 


The Philosophy of 


News, writing from Rome, states, that 4 ‘ a sortie was made by 
Garibaldi, as the French advanced, and that the latter had 600 
killed on the spot, and 452 taken prisoners, many of whom, 
when crossing the streets, were heard to declare that they had 
been tricked into the expedition on promises of being led 
against the Austrians. (He deceived them that had received 
the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image.) 
The streets were barricaded, and the invaders were received 
by a well-fed fire of musketry and a storm of missiles from the 
windows and tops of the houses. The 20th of the line, which 
was in front, was almost totally destroyed. At last, seeing 
the impossibility of continuing a struggle which became fatal, 
General Oudinot ordered a retreat, and the expeditionary corps 
occupy at this moment a strong position near Rome.” 

A letter of the President of France to General Oudinot: 
4 ‘ The telegraphic news, announcing the unforeseen resistance 
which you have met under the walls of Rome, have greatly 
distressed me. I had hoped that the inhabitants of Rome 
would open their eyes to evidence, and would receive with 
eagerness an army which had arrived to accomplish a friendly 
and disinterested mission (the ‘ lamb-beast’ in pretension) ; 
this not being the case, our soldiers have been received as ene¬ 
mies — our military honor is injured. I will not suffer it to 
be so, (‘he speaks as a dragon’), and reinforcements shall 
not be wanting you. Tell your soldiers I appreciate their 
bravery and take part in what they endure, and they may 
always rely on my support and gratitude. My dear general, 
receive my sentiments of high esteem. Louis Napoleon Bona¬ 
parte.” “All accounts agree in the supposition that it will be 
impossible to restore the temporal power of the Papacy in any 
form. ” “We have before us (writes an observer of the events) 
most frightful details of the priests being dragged forth from 
their hiding places by the populace and put to death, their 
bodies being hacked into the smallest pieces and thrown into 
the Tiber. The Pope, on hearing of the resistance of the 
Romans, is said to have declared that he would not return to 
Rome at such a price, and to have sent a message, in conse- 


God and the World. 


221 


quence, to General Oudinot to retire. The refusal, however, 
of Napoleon to comply with this request shows his hypocriti¬ 
cal pretense of sympathy for the Pope. 

‘ 4 Rome, 10th inst. General Oudinot had signified to the king 
of Naples that he (the king) should not make any attack on 
Rome, as it interested the honor of Prance to reduce the city.” 
(The lamb-beast had only two horns, France and Sardinia. 
Had Naples been permitted to cooperate with these, the sym¬ 
bol would have been inappropriate.) Rome, June 8th. “ The 
Pope still persists in demanding the unqualified restoration 
of his powers as a temporal ruler, and this the Triumvirate, 
backed by the people, declare they will never concede. There 
is, at the bottom of every heart, says Mazzina, a determina¬ 
tion the most profound to accomplish the destruction of the 
temporal power of the Popes. All have the same hatred to 
the government of priests, under whatever form it may be 
presented. We shall fight to the last against all projects of 
restoration.” “ These shall hate the woman, and shall make 
her desolate :”—the revelator. 

On the 13th there was an alarming insurrection in Paris, 
got up, as it was said, as a protest of the national guard and 
the republicans against the vote of the assembly on the 12th, 
on the subject of Rome. The Moniteur contains a dispatch 
from General Oudinot, which gives an elaborate and vivid 
description of the final assault made on the 25th. The Romans 
fought most desperately, leaving 400 dead, with 125 prisoners 
in the hands of the French, including 19 officers of all ranks, 
none of whom are believed to be foreigners. In consequence 
of the news of the surrender of Rome, the orders received at 
Toulon for embarking reinforcements of all kinds have 
been countermanded. 

A letter from the Pope. “The Pope has addressed an 
autograph letter to General Oudinot, on the occasion of receiv¬ 
ing the keys of Rome, and expresses his hope that Divine 
Providence may remove the difficulties that may still exist. 
He adds that he does not cease to direct his prayers to heaven 
for the general, the army and the French nation.” The letter 


222 


The Philosophy of 


is dated July 5th. 4 ‘The French are doing all they can in 
Rome, in the free distribution of money, in order to get up a 
cry in favor of Pius the IX, but it is all in vain. The Pope’s 
engineers, being asked to make a demonstration in his favor, 
refused, saying they would rather quit his service, and thirty- 
nine out of the forty-three resigned, and all the rank and file 
disbanded. The same thing occurred among tjie artillery; all 
the officers resigned, with the exception of three captains and 
a sergeant. The reason given is, that the French authorities 
refused to give them any promises or guarantees as to the pro¬ 
tection of the rights of the people.” Coup dl etat of Louis 
Napoleon. News from Paris. “The long-looked for coup 
dJetat has been made. The President, having seized the reins 
of government, declares the assembly dissolved. A state 
guard arrested the leading republicans who had opposed the 
policy of Louis Napoleon. All was done at an early hour on 
Tuesday, the 2d of December, 1851, preparations having 
been perfected for it with consummate skill, during the pre¬ 
vious night, all in secrecy, and fulfilled before any one had 
the least idea it was in progress or even contemplated.” 
(“He exercised all the power of the first beast before him :” 
the revelator.) 

We cannot give even the prominent events of all those 
nations who were in a state of war and rebellion in the mem¬ 
orable year 1848, proverbially known as 4 4 the revolutionary 
year,” but we will simply give their names : Rome, France, 
Sardinia, Milan, Lombardy, Holstein, Denmark, Genoa, 
Frankfort, Holland, Ireland, Piedmont, Naples, Poland, Rus¬ 
sia, Prussia, Sicily, Spain, Portugal, Venice, Switzerland, 
Austria, Mexico, with the United States. See World’s Pro¬ 
gress, under the heads of these nations, of that year. Indeed, 
every Catholic kingdom in the world was in arms in the year 
1848, and more than at any one time or year during the 
Christian dispensation. And is it to be wondered at that many 
prophecies were then fulfilled? Indeed, it would have been 
wonderful were it otherwise, especially when it was a war 
involving nations whose fundamental principles united church 


God and the World. 


223 


and state, and tliat, too, in their religions and civil relations 
to the Papal church, whose history occupies almost the whole 
book of Revelations, and a great portion of the prophecies, 
as well as many portions of the writings of Moses, the Psalms, 
and much of the New Testament. What could be more rea¬ 
sonable, therefore, than that the important and widespread 
upheavings of those nations, thus convulsed, should be found, 
as we have found them, extensively written before-hand by 
the holy prophets, and revealed in the New Testament by 
Christ, the apostles and the revelator ? 

In the history of the events of this period, we have certain 
facts developed, which most clearly identify them with pro¬ 
phetic scripture, both as it respects the nature of the events 
as well as the prophetic periods, which mark their chronolog¬ 
ical order of fulfillment, and this striking correspondence 
seems almost to demonstrate the application here given to be 
correct. The revolution commenced by Pope Pius the IX, 
who, as we have seen, promised his Italian subjects a consti¬ 
tution, which had not been demanded, but was voluntary. 
But the Pope, seeing the impossibility of restraining the 
people from the enjoyment of religious, while they had civil, 
liberty, refused to keep his promise. This refusal was the 
cause of the reaction of the kings and emperors, who again 
rallied, and, in their combined efforts, crushed out all civil 
liberty from their States, and, of course, religious liberty went 
with it. It must be remembered that this revolution was 
almost exclusively Catholic. Not the Turks, not the Greeks, 
with Russia at them head, and not the Protestants. It is true, 
Prussia was involved in it, but it must be remembered that 
she was then inferior to Austria, and she dictated the policy 
of the whole German confederation, most all of whose princes 
were Catholic, and especially Francis Joseph was the most 
prominent and faithful adherent of the Pope among the kings 
of Europe at this time. Nothing can be clearer than that the 
great and almost only question involved in this revolution 
was that of the temporal power of Popery. All were ready 
to retain the Pope in his ecclesiastical character as head of 


224 


The Philosophy of 


tlie church, but not of the State. In this respect the move¬ 
ment differed fundamentally from all others in the history of 
Popery. The reformers attacked her anti-Christian doctrines 
and practices, while the temporal power remained unmodified 
and unmolested. 

It is true Napoleon the I dethroned Pope Pius YII and 
sent him into exile, but this was only in consequence of the 
Pope’s refusal to divorce him from his lawful wife, Josephine ; 
but during the whole period of the French revolution, com¬ 
mencing in the reign of Louis XYI, and ending with the over¬ 
throw of Napoleon the I by the allies, the question of the tem¬ 
poral power of the Pope was never once named, and even the 
personal injury inflicted on the Pope by Napoleon was settled 
by his signing the concordat, which fully restored the Pope 
to his dignity and authority as a civil ruler ; and even when 
he was in exile, the people of his States remained just as loyal 
and faithful subjects of the Pontifical government, as though 
he was on the throne in the Yatican palace, clearly showing 
that the 1,260 years of his temporal power had not ended. It 
was Louis‘Napoleon, President of the French republic, who 
made war on the Roman republic, crushing it and reseating 
the Pope. In this work of destroying civil and religious lib¬ 
erty from Rome, France rejected help from Naples, and per¬ 
emptorily forbade her intervention, and only received the 
moral and financial support of Yictor Emmanuel, whose father, 
Charles Albert, having abdicated and fled before this reaction, 
because of his identification with the revolutionary movements 
for freedom, and the weakness of Yictor Emmanuel led him 
to prove false to the cause of his father and spread of liberty, 
and who, under the influence of France, has proved a pliant tool 
of Louis Napoleon, and to the present day is ostensibly in a 
hostile attitude to Garibaldi and the republicans of Italy, 
although deeply interested in the success of the movements 
for the unity of Italy, with Rome as its capital.'* 

In consummating this project Louis Napoleon proved a 

*Since this was written, and by the fall of Louis Napoleon, Italian unity has 
been accomplished. 



God and the World. 


225 


traitor to his professed principles of republicanism and oath 
of office, and under his instructions General Oudinot entered 
the Roman territory, marked by deception and lying pretense, 
professing to the constitutional assembly that his was a friendly 
mission, to see what kind of government the people wanted, 
and to assist them in attaining it. This policy brought such 
unpopularity and odium on Louis Napoleon that the follow¬ 
ing election for members of the Assembly returned a large 
majority against him, and, as the presidential election was 
approaching, to take place on the 4th of May, 1852, fearing 
defeat, he seized the reins of the government, proclaimed him¬ 
self emperor, and dismissed the National Assembly. This was 
on the 2d day of December, 1851, six months before the expi¬ 
ration of his presidential term of office ; and, according to this 
history, the Pope has never regained his temporal power, but 
it has been exercised by the emperor of the French, France 
having kept an army of occupation in Rome from that time 
until the year 1867, when it was withdrawn for a few months, 
and we all know the result. Garibaldi, with his republican 
army, marched against Rome, and no one doubts would have 
taken possession and have consummated the unity of Italy, 
had not Louis Napoleon again interfered by sending his army to 
defend Rome, and, according to treaty stipulations, laying Vic¬ 
tor Emmanuel’s government under contribution to pay the 
expense. Here is the work of the two-horned lamb-beast, 
making the image to the first beast before him (Papal). It is 
not a restoration of what it wrns before, only its image — some¬ 
thing looking like it, but no more the thing itself than an image 
of a man is the man himself, the vital difference consisting in 
the fact that the temporal power of the Pope passed into the 
hands of Louis Napoleon, and has ever since been exercised 
by him, and only reluctantly aided by Victor Emmanuel. 

The revelator says: “Let him that hath understanding 
count the number of the beast (the lamb-beast) for it is the 
number of a man, and his number is six hundred and sixty- 
six.” We find no clue to this enigma in the scriptures, and 
which is left, so far as they are concerned, involved in about 
29 


226 


The Philosophy of 


as much mystery as the things which the seven thunders 
uttered, and which John was forbidden to write ; and not being 
willing to venture any speculation of our own, in the absence 
of Bible proof, we will here introduce a criticism, copied from 
an old book published in 1803, at the time of the career of 
Napoleon the I, entitled the “ Theological Magazine 
We may remark that the extraordinary career of Bonaparte, 
who was considered, while passing through it, an instru¬ 
ment of destiny and a prominent subject of prophetic predic¬ 
tion, and therefore the criticism we are about to introduce. 
We remark, also, that as it is Napoleon Bonaparte the III 
who is the man symbolized by the lamb-beast, the number 
of whose name is 666, and not Bonaparte the I, the name 
being the same, therefore, whatever there is of argument in 
the criticism applies equally to Bonaparte the III. The 
writer says : “St. John says the number and mark of a man 
is 666, meaning an extraordinary man to arise hereafter. 
The mark refers to so many letters in a Greek name when 
used as numerals or figures, according to the Greek alphabet, 
or table, as will make 666. The first consul of France is a 
descendant of a Grecian from Sparta of the Magnioles in the 
mountains near Misitra, in the Morea, driven there by the 
Venetians in the seventeenth century, and afterward driven 
by the Turks to Corsica, with Theodore and Paoli’s ancestors 
and connections, where they supported liberty under a 
Lacedemonian form of government, until 1736, when, to get 
free of the aristocratical tyranny of Genoa, they declared 
Corsica to be an independent State, and chose Theodore to be 
their king. On his demise, Gen. Paoli was chosen king, 
whose fate and character are well known. Ladovicas XV, 
of France, coerced tile Corsican Greeks to become subjects of 
the Gallican crown. After the death of Ladovicas XV, the 
Greek Corsicans became great defenders of the revolution in 
France, no doubt, but with a view of restoring to Europe and 
Asia Lacedemonian law and liberty — the boasted pride and 
glory of nations in former ages. 

The family of Bonaparte being the most conspicuous of all 


God and the World. 


227 


Corsican Greeks, as well as of the Greeks in Asia, Africa and 
Europe. By the wonderful events which have taken place 
under Bonaparte in the last ten years, the Greek literati 
have found St. John’s mark and number of his name 666, 
according to the Greek alphabet of numerals, contained 
in the Greek name Bonaparte. St. John knew exactly the 
mark or number of letters in the name of the extraordinary 
man, of whom he prophesied, which would, by the Greek 
numeral alphabet, number 666, of course, the mark of his 
name is ten letters. In the Greek name Bonaparte are ten 
letters; those ten letters by the Greek table, or alphabet of 
figures, or letters, make exactly 666, as appears by the 
adjoining 


TABLE. 


Beta _ __________ 

B 

2 

Omicron - -- -- -- -- - 

0 

70 

Nu _ __________ 

N 

50 

Nu __________ 

N 

50 

Eta ___________ 

E 

8 

Pi __________ 

P 

80 

Alpha - 

A 

1 

Rho _______ ___ 

R 

100 

Tau ___________ 

T 

300 

Epsilon - 

E 

5 



666 


Let him that hath understanding count the number of his 
name, 666, and the marks of the man, or number 10, and he will 
see that St. John evidently pointed out Bonaparte as the beast 
of the earth, who, like the rough goat of Grecia, spoken of by 
Daniel, went from the west, touched not the ground, smote 
the ram with the two horns, broke oif his two horns, and 
waxed very strong toward the south, the east, and the pleas¬ 
ant land.* 

* Since the above was written, and which the previous career of Napoleon the 
III does not permit us to change, we need only remark that his fall has in no wise 
conduced to restore the Pope to temporal power, and only develops the move¬ 
ments of the other horn on the lamb-beast (Italy) in its relations to the Popedom. 
The prophetic history of which seems to require that Rome shall be the residence 
of the Pope, as head of the Romish church as long as the world stands, but from 
the year 1848 till that grand consummation he is to be without temporal power ; 
of this, during this period he is to be stripped naked, and this also carries with 
it the landed estates of the Papal church in all Catholic countries. 


















We give here the following diagram, illustrative of the commencement, comparative length and termination of the prophetic 
periods, with the thousand years of Rev. xx, which, together with the chronology of the world, end in the year A. D. 1923: 


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God and the World . 


229 


CHAPTER XXIII. 

AN EXPOSITION OF THE SOT!! OF REVELATIONS. 

We come now to the consideration of those prophecies 
which portray these events more in detail, and in connected 
chains, beginning with the 20th chapter of Revelations: 
“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the 
key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.” 
The expression “ bottomless pit ” is mentioned eight times 
in this book, and always preceded by the definite article 
the. Indeed, there is but one such pit brought to view in 
it, and it is one of those peculiar expressions which enables 
us to identify and classify subjects which otherwise would 
seem to have no connection. We understand this term or 
expression to represent the anti-Christian system of Papacy, 
having no bottom or foundation in truth, not even professing 
to be established upon 4 6 the foundation of the apostles and 
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone,” 
but on the rock Peter, and his successors, the Popes, and 
therefore it is not Christ’s, but Peter’s church. The “great 
chain ” signifies the temporal power of the Popes, given to 
them by the ten Pagan kings of Rome. “The angel of tb c 
bottomless pit” is the Papal, or little horn power. “'And he 
(the little horn), after having received this power, laid hold oh 
the dragon (the ten Pagan kings), that old serpent, which is 
the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.” It j 
also necessary to remark here that there is but one drago 
brought to view in the book of Revelations, although it is al 
mentioned eight times ; and, as we have seen, symbolizes th 
kingdoms of the world which have been connected with 
church of God, both in the Jewish and gospel dispensati^ 


230 


The Philosophy of 


and who, by their civil power, have shed the blood of more 
than fifty millions of the martyrs of Jesns, and especially 
under that form of the dragon swayed by the “little horn,” 
whose character has been so terrible and damnable that no 
epithets, even those used descriptive of real devils (fallen 
angels), are at all adequate to do it justice. 

This idea is illustrated by the fact that when this “son of 
perdition” was seen by the prophets and revelator, there was 
no symbol in all God’s creation by which it might be repre¬ 
sented. He had never made a beast so cunning, crafty, avari¬ 
cious, ambitious, relentlessly hateful, blood-thirsty and cruel 
as its appropriate symbol. He was therefore under the 
necessity of conjuring an imaginative monster, “dreadfuland 
terrible, having seven heads and ten horns, great iron teeth, a 
fearful horn that had eyes, and a mouth speaking great things 
and blasphemies.” The dragon thus chained is that part of it 
which had lost the six of its heads, and the seventh wounded 
to death, and that, too, by this very act of binding him and 
casting him into the bottomless pit; or, literally, Papacy, by 
the sword, compelled the Pagan kings to receive her anti- 
Christian system of religion as that of the nation, instead of 
Paganism, who not only relinquished their religion but their 
temporal power, and became subservient to that of Papacy, 
which in another place is called the “angel of the bottomless 
pit,” and who now cast the dragon into the pale of her com¬ 
munion, making her the “cage of every unclean and hateful 
bird.” The ten kings had supported Paganism as the national 
religion. This was the mystery of iniquity which did already 
work in Paul’s day, but which is now bound or chained by 
the little horn, or by the “ abomination that maketh desolate,” 
as Jesus denominates it. By the binding of the dragon, there¬ 
fore, we are to understand the forced national conversion of 
the Pagan kings by Papacy, whose power, in consequence, 
was transferred to it, making it the religion of the Homan 
empire. The dragon (the independent power of the Pagan 
kings) is here cast into the bottomless pit (Papal church), shut 
up there and “a seal set upon him that he should deceive the 


God and the World. 


231 


nations no more till the thousand years are fulfilled.” The 
deception is now to be carried on by the power that chained 
the dragon (Papacy). “ After that he must be loosed for a 
little season.” 

In the 12th chapter these epithets are used again descriptive 
of the dragon, but in such a modified sense as to show that 
the dragon, who was here chained, was not the real devil, but 
something which so closely allied the two that they are sim¬ 
ilarly designated. ‘ ‘ And the great dragon was cast out, that 
old serpent called the devil and Satan” “The ancient and 
honorable, he is the head, and the prophet that teaches lies, he 
is the tail,” Isa. “ The ancient,” old Pagan religion deceived 
the whole world. When Christ was on earth’the entire world, 
with the exception of the Jews, were Pagan, and so far 
had they become corrupted that one great class of their teach¬ 
ers, agreeing with the Pagan philosophy, taught that the 
great and fundamental truth of revealed religion, the resurrec¬ 
tion of the dead, was not true. 

The expression, “He shall deceive the nations no more till 
the thousand years are fulfilled,” conveys the idea that what 
was cast into the bottomless pit, and did not deceive the 
nations during the thousand years, is to be loosed again at its 
end, and for a little season resume its deceptive work. If the 
destruction of the power of the Pagan kings and its assump¬ 
tion by the Papacy is meant, it follows, that, at the expiration 
of the thousand years, these kings would assume independ¬ 
ence of Papal Rome, when they will again carry on their old 
system of king-craft, or of national deception among them¬ 
selves, without regard to the Pope, for, mark, “They shall 
go out to deceive the nations” * In corroboration of this 
view, and to show how fatally the European kings were bound 
by the “great chain” (Popery), let us refer to some historical 
facts of its exhibition. “Pope Gregory the VII obliged 
Henry the IV, emperor of Germany, to stand three days, in 
the depth of winter, bare-footed, at the castle gate, to implore 
his pardon.” “In 1070 the Pope’s authority was so firmly 

* They have now thrown off the kingly or civil power of Popery. 



232 


The Philosophy of 


fixed in England that appeals from English tribunals to the 
Pope was the law.” 44 Henry the II, of England, held the 
stirrup of the horse of Pope Alexander the III to mount, and 
also for Becket.” 44 When Louis, king of France, and Henry 
II, of England, met Pope Alexander III at the palace 
gate, they both dismounted to receive him, and, holding each 
of them one of the reins of his horse’s bridle, walked on foot 
by his side, and in that submissive manner conducted him 
into the castle. 

44 Pope Adrian IV was the only Englishman that ever 
obtained the tiara, the Pope’s triple crown. The tiara and 
keys are the badges of the Papal dignity ; the tiara of his 
civil rank, and the keys of his jurisdiction. His arrogance 
was such that he obliged Frederick the I to prostrate himself 
before him, kiss his foot, hold his stirrup, and lead the white 
horse on which he rode.” 44 Pope Celestine III kicked the 
crown from the head of the emperor Henry VI while kneel¬ 
ing before him, to show his prerogative of making and 
unmaking kings.” Hum’s History. 44 She reigneth over the 
kings of the earth.” The revelator. 44 In 1226 the Pope col¬ 
lected the tenths of the whole kingdom of England.” Here 
is 44 the little horn” which waxed exceeding great; it was 
little at first, but behold its dimensions. 

This power of the Popes commenced, as we have seen, in 
the year 588, by the conversion of Spain to Papacy, and grew 
to these enormous proportions in the eleventh century, but 
began to lose its power in the sixteenth, under the reign 
of Henry the VIII, of England, who was the first Catholic 
king to throw off the Papal yoke. Appeals from England to 
Rome were abolished in 1533. The words Lord Pope were 
struck out of English books in 1541. This decline continued 
until 1848, when Pius IX lost the remainder of Papal tem¬ 
poral power, Austria being the last of the Catholic kings 
to throw it off, who formally informed the Pope that he must 
not only relieve him from the obligations imposed by the con¬ 
cordat, but pardon him for not obeying them since the year 
1848. In this chapter also we have the dragon encountering 


God and the World . 


233 

Christ as soon as he was born, and carrying on his work of 
deception and persecution down to the time he was thus 
chained by the Papacy, when she herself, controlling the 
dragon, took up the same horrid work of deception and 
bloody persecution, which brings us down to the events to 
transpire at the end of the thousand years. “And there 
appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the 
sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a 
crown of twelve stars, and she brought forth a man-child 
which was to rule all nations. ’ 9 That the term 4 4 heaven, ’ ’ here 
used as a figure, does not refer to the other world, is proved 
by the fact that Christ’s birth, here brought to view, did not 
take place in tlie other world, but in Bethlehem of Judea, in 
this, and is also where the dragon was. 4 4 And there appeared 
another wonder in heaven, and behold a great red dragon, 
having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his 
heads, and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven 
and did cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before 
the woman ready to devour her child as soon as it was 
born.” 

The history of the fulfillment of this event is recorded in 
Matt, ii, 13: 44 Behold the angel of the Lord appeareth to 

Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise ! take the young child and 
his mother and flee into Egypt, and be there until I bring thee 
word, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.” 
(At this time Jerusalem was a Roman province, over which 
Herod ruled, and Jesus was finally crucified by Roman 
soldiers, and they said, 44 We have no king but Csesar.) 
44 And her child was caught up unto God and to his throne 
(Christ’s ascension), and there was war in heaven. Michael 
and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and 
his angels fought and prevailed not; neither was their place 
found any more in heaven.” Here is described the contest 
which took place, by the binding of the Pagan dragon by the 
Papal, and his being cast into the bottomless pit. Before 
yielding, the Pagan kings fought desperately for about two 
hundred and fifty years, from the days of Constantine until 
30 


234 


The Philosophy of 


tlie conquests of Justinian over the Visigoths of Spain, in the 
year 588. This ancient religion was not only that of the four 
universal monarchies, but was that of Egypt in the days of 
Moses, and into whose mysteries, no doubt, he, himself, was 
profoundly inducted. Paul tells us that “ Moses was learned 
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.” It was emphatically 
the old serpent. It was the seventh head upon the dragon 
which entered into this contest, and, with his ten horns, was 
wounded to death by Papacy (the angel of the bottomless 
pit). This power is also represented by the tail of the great 
red dragon, being that part which succeeded the seven heads 
and ten horns, appropriately representing the last form of 
temporal or sovereign power of the Pontifical government, 
synchronizing with what is called the “ eighth part of the 
dragon and of the seven, and which goeth into perdition.” 
This is clearly presented in the 17th chapter 8, 11: “And the 
beast that thou sawest was, and is not, and shall ascend out 
of the bottomless pit and go into perdition.” (That perdition 
is his appropriate abode. Paul calls him “ The man of sin, the 
son of perdition.”) That the tail and the eighth part of the 
dragon is the same, is further proved from the fact that it 
does the same work. Dan. viii, 10: “It (the little horn) 
waxed exceeding great, even to the host of heaven, and it cast 
down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and 
stamped upon them.” Or, as in the revelation: “And his 
tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast 
them to the earth.” 

Notwithstanding the struggle of the Pagan kings to main¬ 
tain their religion and power it was unavailing. ‘ 4 The dragon 
was cast out into the earth and his angels (sympathizers) were 
cast out with him. ’ ’ Constantine became the first Papal empe¬ 
ror A. D. 320. So great and glorious did this event at first 
appear to the Christians who had suffered through those ten 
bloody persecutions of Paganism, commencing in the latter 
part of the first century with the martyrdom of the apostles, 
and ending here, it was not wonderful that it should have 
given rise to the rejoicing described in the 10th verse, thus: 


God and the World . 


235 


“ Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of 
onr God, and the power of his Christ, for the accuser of our 
brethren is cast down (the old serpent was cast out into the 
earth), which accused them before our God day and night. 
Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them.” 
But mark how soon the song of triumph is turned to one of 
wo, at the discovery of the mistake, and catching a glimpse 
of this new power, which arrogates to do the work of God and 
assumes his prerogatives, the exclamation of what would fol¬ 
low : “ Wo to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for 

the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because 
he knoweth he hath but a short time.” This was the head 
with the ten horns which was to continue a short space. But 
“ they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the 
word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto 
the death.” 

“ They sailed through bloody seas, 

And conquered though they died.” 

After this embodiment of satanic power was thus dethroned 
and had finished up its career of blood, by being thus chained, 
the revelator sees the martyred victims, who in their very death 
had triumphantly reigned with Christ, whose crucifixion also 
came at the hand of Pagan Rome, after which it had w^aged 
an exterminating warfare against his followers. Christ had 
resisted him unto death and triumphed, and his martyred 
saints had also resisted and overcome him by the blood of the 
Lamb. They loved not their lives unto the death, and thus 
reigned triumphantly with Christ a thousand years — the dark 
ages. “ And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for 
the witness of Jesus and for the word of God, and which had 
not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had 
received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands, and 
they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” 

Mark the expression. It is not that they reigned in their 
resurrection bodies, but the souls of those whose bodies had 
been beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and were still dead 
that thus reigned. They had accepted the proposition of the 


236 


The Philosophy of 


Master: “He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it 
again.” They had refused to be identified with the beast or 
his image in doctrine or spirit, preferring death to such wor¬ 
ship. Jesus had defied the Roman dragon, and, in the con¬ 
flict, lost his life. These, also, had braved his power and were 
sacrificed by his malignant cruelty; but both Jesus and his 
martyred saints were victorious, though it were even in death. 
These same dead were seen and described thus: “And when 
he had opened the fifth seal I saw under the altar the souls 
of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the tes¬ 
timony which they held, and they cried with a loud voice, say¬ 
ing, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge 
and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ! And 
white robes were given unto every one of them, and it was 
said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season, 
until their fellow servants also, and their brethren that should 
be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” 

It is the blood of the martyrs, like that of the blood of Abel, 
that crieth unto God from the ground for justice, and when he 
shall judge the world in righteousness, vengeance against these 
two abominations of the earth will be awarded. This incar¬ 
nation of evil will then receive her just recompense. That 
this is in reservation against these persecutors is evident from 
the following: Rev. xix, 2. “ For true and righteous are his 
judgments, for he hath judged the great whore which did 
corrupt the earth, and hath avenged the blood of his servants 
at her hand. For by her sorceries were all nations deceived, 
and in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and 
of all them that were slain upon the earth : and I saw the woman 
which sat upon the scarlet-colored beast drunken with the 
blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of 
Jesus.” “ Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apos¬ 
tles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her.” As 
this is the doom of these two persecuting abominations of the 
earth, of whom the woman sitting upon the scarlet-colored 
beast is the mother. Therefore, we understand that into 
these martyred dead was thrown a symbolic voice, designat- 


God and the World. 


237 


ing two of the most bloody persecutions through which the 
church ever passed, and which seemed to call for the immedi¬ 
ate execution of God’s determined vengeance, just as the 
blood of righteous Abel called unto God from the ground, as 
the first martyr. The first of these periods was in the days 
of the Emperor Dioclesian, who undertook the extermination 
of the church of Christ. So confident were the Pagans of 
success that they had a medal struck for Dioclesian, with the 
inscription, “Nomine Christianorum deleto.” The name of 
Christian had become extinguished. Seventeen thousand 
were slain in one month. In Egypt alone 150,000 suffered 
martyrdom by the hands of their persecutors, besides 700,000 
came to their end in banishment or on the public works, 
Marsh’s Ecclesiastical History, page 195. Constantine now 
ascended the throne, and put a sudden stop to this effusion 
of blood, and here began the work of chaining the dragon. 
Those thus martyred were those designated in the 20th chap¬ 
ter, 4 4 Who had been beheaded for the word of God, and for 
the testimony of Jesus Christ,” which scene immediately 
followed the event of chaining the dragon, and were the vic¬ 
tims of Pagan martyrdom, while the souls of those who were 
heard crying from beneath the altar were those of Papal per¬ 
secution. This last period, we understand, was just prior to 
the reign of Henry the VIII, or in the reign of Mary, Queen 
of Scots, known as the 44 bloody Mary.” These persecutions 
were principally those of the Huguenots of France. 44 Charles 
the IX, as if to signalize himself by his ferocity, resolved upon 
the extermination of the Huguenots from his dominions. He 
had laid a snare for them by offering his sister in marriage to 
one of them, the Prince of Navarre. All the heads of the 
Huguenots were assembled in Paris at the nuptials, on the 
eve of Bartholomew’s day, August 24, 1571, when on the 
ringing of a bell (the signal given) the dreadful massacre com¬ 
menced. Charles and his mother beheld it, with joy, from a 
window. The monster himself fired upon the Huguenots, cry¬ 
ing, kill! kill! An unparalleled scene of horror ensued. 
The Catholics, like blood-hounds, rushed upon the defenseless 


238 


Ttje Philosophy of 


Huguenots. About five hundred men of distinction, and about 
ten thousand of the inferior class, that night, in Paris, slept 
the sleep of death. A general destruction was immediately 
ordered throughout France, and in the horrid carnage 60,000 
perished, and solemn thanksgivings were rendered to God by 
the Catholics for the triumph, as they called it, of the church 
militant. It was, however, the horrid excess of religious big¬ 
otry, the awful triumph of the ‘man of sin,’ ” Marsh’s Eccle¬ 
siastical History, page 295. 

For these martyred dead there seems to be distinguished 
honors in reservation. The souls of those who had been 
beheaded for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus 
Christ, had a peculiar reign of triumph. “Blessed and holy 
is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the 
second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of 
God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand 
years.” Chap, vii, 13: “One of the elders answered, saying 
unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes, 
and whence come they ? and he said unto me, these are they 
which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their 
robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb, there- 
fore are they before the throne. ’ ’ This tribulation from whence 
they came up, is forcibly presented under the symbol of the 
church of Smyrna of this same period. Rev. ii, 8-11: “And 
unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write, these things 
saith the first and the last, which was dead and is alive again, 
I know thy works, and tribulation and poverty (but thou art 
rich), and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are 
Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear 
none of those things which thou slialt suffer, behold! the 
devil (the dragon called the devil and Satan) shall cast some 
of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have 
tribulation ten days; be thou faithful unto death and I will 
give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear let him hear 
what the spirit saith unto the churches; he that overcometh 
shall not be hurt of the second death.” 

The thousand years covering the period, called the “dark 


God and the World. 


239 


ages,” through which the church suffered martyrdom at the 
hand of the Papal anti-Christ, the great red dragon, who 
is called the devil and Satan, and whose church, instead of 
being Christian, is here denominated the synagogue of Satan, 
and the devil who here subjects the saints to this “ten days” 
tribulation, is the same power, because it concerns the same 
events, as those of the thousand years. That the church of 
Smyrna was designed to map out, or symbolize this period 
of the gospel dispensation, will appear more fully when we 
come to consider the spiritual messages sent to the seven 
churches of Asia. This tribulation is also declared to be the 
work of the little horn power mentioned by Jesus (Matt. 
24th) before whose march of death the infant church was 
obliged to flee into dens and caves of the earth. “When ye 
therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of 
by Daniel, the prophet, stand in the holy place; whoso 
readeth let him understand,” as much as though he had said, 
let him who reads what I now say know and understand what 
I mean, better than to apply this abomination of desolation to 
Antiochus Epiphanes, who, one hundred and fifty years 
before these words of Jesus were spoken, offered swine’s 
flesh upon the altar in the Jewish temple, and persecuted that 
people, while it was yet to come in his day. “When ye 
shall see it, then let them which are in Judea flee into the 
mountains; let him that is on the house-top not come down 
to take any thing out of his house (this flight will be neces¬ 
sarily precipitate so that you cannot be incumbered with fur¬ 
niture or baggage), neither let him that is in the field return 
back to take his clothes, for then shall be great tribulation, 
such as was not since the beginning of the world to that same 
time, no nor ever shall be, and except those days shall be 
shortened, there shall no flesh be saved.” 

That this scripture had no reference to the destruction of 
Jerusalem is also evident from the fact that the little horn 
power, identical with the abomination of desolation spoken 
of by Daniel, the prophet, by whom this tribulation of 
Christ’s saints was to be accomplished, did not come into 


240 


The Philosophy of 


existence until the fourth century of the Christian era, and 
Jerusalem was destroyed A. D. 70, and, more than this, the 
destruction of that city was in no wise an event of such mag¬ 
nitude as this “great tribulation” imports, and besides all 
the Christians which were in that city understood by the sign 
Jesus had given them, namely, “ When ye shall see Jerusa¬ 
lem compassed about with armies, know ye that the end 
thereof is nigh,” and, accordingly, when they saw the armies 
of Titus, the Roman general, investing the city they all 
escaped, so that history informs us not a Christian perished 
in the ruins, and those who did were infidel Jews, the exe- 
crators and rejectors of Christ, whose blood, according to 
their own invocation at Pilate’s judgment hall, came now 
fearfully upon them; but this tribulation was to be the sad 
legacy, not of infidels, but of the faithful and suffering follow¬ 
ers of Jesus. But we will not undertake to argue further 
against such an absurdity. This flight of the church is fully 
brought out in the Revelations, chapter xii: “And the woman 
fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of 
God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred 
and three score days, and where she is nourished for a time, 
times and a half-time, from the face of the serpent, and when 
the dragon saw that he was cast out into the earth he perse¬ 
cuted the woman which brought forth the man-child, and the 
serpent cast out of his mouth waters as a flood after the 
woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the 
flood, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up 
the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.” The 
dragon who had now sundered the chain which bound him to 
Rome, defended the woman (the true church) against her ene¬ 
mies ; the earth (civil governments) opened her mouth and 
swallowed up the waters (Papal persecutors), and thus Jesus 
shortened the days of the tribulation. Those who are here 
pronounced “ blessed and holy,” and who had sealed their 
testimony with their blood, had in this very change obtained 
a part in the first resurrection. 


God and the World. 


241 


CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE EXPOSITION CONTINUED. THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 

That there is a first resurrection through which every man 
must pass in order to obtain a part in the literal resurrection, 
that of the body to immortality and eternal life, is clearly 
taught by the apostle Paul, especially if those who are thus 
raised up continue faithful unto death, as the martyrs did. 
Eph. ii, 1-6: “And you hath he quickened who were dead in 
trespasses and sins ; wherein in time passed ye walked accord¬ 
ing to the course of this world, according to the prince of the 
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children 
of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversa¬ 
tion in times past in the lusts of our flesh and of the mind, 
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. 
But God, who is rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith 
he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened 
us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together , and 
made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” 
This is the spiritual resurrection of our dead nature, and 
introduces us into the spiritual kingdom of heaven, and which 
so translates men from the kingdom of darkness into the 
kingdom of God’s dear son, that their natures are harmonized 
with the government of God, and they not only become sub¬ 
missive to the same laws and principles governing the immortal 
inhabitants of the eternal world, but they love the laws them¬ 
selves, and the spontaneous expression of their heart is, “Let 
the Lord reign.” In writing to the Col. ii, 13, the apostle 
again says: “And you, being dead in your sins, and in the 
uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together 
with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, buried with him 
by baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the 


242 


The Philosophy of 


faith which is of the operation of God.” That this spiritual 
assimilation to the moral image of Christ is the pledge, or 
seal, of the glorious resurrection of the body, is thus proved: 
Rom. viii, 12— “But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus 
from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the 
dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by his spirit that 
dwelleth in you.” Thus were these souls quickened before 
they sealed their faith by their blood, for the testimony of 
Jesus and for the word of God. Therefore, they, as well as 
all others who are thus quickened and raised to life from 
being dead in sins, sitting here in heavenly places in Christ 
Jesus, by which transforming change they are made partakers 
in the first resurrection, and are, therefore, pronounced 
“ blessed and holy.” We shall not attempt here to refute the 
notion that there are two resurrections of the body, one of 
the righteous and the other of the wicked, with a thousand 
years between, supposed to be taught in this 20th of Revela¬ 
tion, because a proper understanding of the principal doc¬ 
trines of scripture leaves no room for such an idea. (See 
resurrection of the dead.) We may, however, here remark 
that those who advocate the theory, also claim that this thou¬ 
sand years (a millenium) commences with the resurrection of 
the righteous dead, and is, therefore, in the future ; while we 
have shown that this millennium, which term means nothing 
else but a thousand years , commenced in the sixth century 
and ended in the sixteenth, covering the darkest period in the 
world’s history. They also contend that the judgment takes 
place at the time of this resurrection, while nothing can be 
more clearly taught than that it takes place after the thousand 
years have ended. The expression, “The rest of the dead,” 
includes both the righteous and the wicked, and is not the 
resurrection of the soul but the body, for whatever condition 
these martyrs were in, and that, too, after having passed 
through the first resurrection, their bodies were still dead, 
and that it was the souls of those who had been beheaded for 
the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ which 
thus lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years, and 


God and the World. 


243 


these are identical with the souls under the altar , waiting the 
dawn of the resurrection morning. The following passages 
show that the literal. resurrection, that of the body, both of 
the righteous and the wicked, takes place simultaneously: 
Rev. xx, 11-15— “And I saw a great white throne, and him 
that sat on it, from whose face the' earth and heaven fled 
away, and there was no place found for them. And I saw the 
dead, small and great, stand before God ; and the books were 
opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of 
life, and the dead were judged out of those things which 
were written in the books according to their works.” (This 
“according to their works” is expressed by Paul thus: 
44 Whether they be good or bad.” 44 The books were opened, 5 ’ 

the book of life, and the other books; the righteous were 
acquitted, their names being found written in the Lamb’s 
book of life, while the names and condemnation of all others 
were found in the other books, which were also here opened.) 
4 4 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and 
hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were 
judged, every man according to their works. And death and 
hell were cast into the lake of fire; this is the second death, 
and whosoever was not found w’ritten in the book of life was 
cast into the lake of fire.” 

Under the opening of the sixth seal the same events take 
place: 44 And the heavens departed as a scroll when it is 
rolled together,, and every mountain and island were moved 
out of their places ; and the kings of the earth, and the great 
men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty 
men, and every bondman and every freeman, hid themselves 
in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the 
mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of 
him that sitteth on the throne (the great white throne), and 
from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of his wrath is 
come, and who shall be able to stand?” This is the second 
coming of Christ, and it is the same as takes place at the end 
of the thousand years, and the saints are raised at this time, 
and not a thousand years before. Paul thus shows this idea 


2 - 


The Philosophy of 


when speaking of the order of the resurrection. First Cor. 
xv, 23: “ Christ, the first fruits ; afterward, they that are 

Christ’s at Ms coming .” That there is no such interval 
between the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked is 
proved positively by the following texts. Acts xxiv, 15 : 
“And have hope toward God, which they themselves also 
allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of 
the just and unjust.” In this one resurrection we see that 
both classes are included. It is a resurrection of the just and 
unjust both. John v, 27-29: “ And hath given him authority 
to execute judgment,because he is the Son of Man. Marvel not 
at this, for the hour is coming in the which all they that are in 
their graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth, they 
that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they 
that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.” 
Here the time “an hour ” is fixed for the resurrection of all 
the righteous and all the wicked, and it is also at the execu¬ 
tion of Christ’s great judgment. Christ in substance here 
quotes from Daniel’s prophecy the passage which we here 
introduce to close this argument. Dan. xii, 1-3: “And at 
that time Michael shall stand up (Christ), the great prince 
which standeth for the children of thy people, and there shall 
be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a 
nation, even to that same time ; and at that time thy people 
shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in 
the book, and many of them (Jesus says all , so this is what it 
means) that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some 
to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.” 
And thus the great transactions are here connected and take 
place simultaneously. Christ in judgment; the books opened ; 
the righteous and wicked resurrected ; and each class receives 
its reward, whether good or bad, and all this takes place at 
the end of the thousand years. And what else is thus brought 
to view? “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan 
shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive 
the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, to 
gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the 


God and the World. 


245 


sand of the sea. And they went np on the breadth of the 
earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the 
beloved city (the new Jerusalem city before it comes down 
from God, out of heaven, but yet in plain sight), and tire 
came down from God, out of heaven, and devoured them, 
and the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of tire 
and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and 
shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever; and I saw 
a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face 
the earth and the heaven tied away, and there was no place 
found for them.” What follows we have already discussed. 

Here we have the doom of the dragon, now divided into 
three parts, the dragon, the beast and the false prophet. As 
Louis Napoleon is the false prophet, it required the develop¬ 
ment of his career to till up these divisions of the dragon, and 
it is in this condition in which it is to be found at the great 
judgment. This corresponds with the description given by 
Daniel: “I beheld till the thrones were cast down and the 
Ancient of Days did sit” (Christ, the judge, is the Ancient of 
D ays); said he, ‘ 4 before Abraham was I am. 5 ’ And the thrones 
here are the same as those alluded to in answer to the question 
of the disciples : “ What shall we have who have left all and 

followed thee ? Jesus said unto them, in the regeneration or 
restitution, or the new heavens and new earth, when the Son 
of Man shall sit upon the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit 
on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of the children 
of Israel ” (The saints are also to judge angels, fallen angels), 
whose garment was white like snow, and the hair of his head 
like the pure wool; his throne was like the fiery flame, and 
his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came 
forth from before him ; thousand thousands ministered unto 
him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him, 
the judgment was set and the books were opened (the same as 
at the end of the thousand years). I beheld even till the beast 
was slain and his body given to the burning flame.” “I saw, 
in the night vision, and behold, one like the $on of Man came 
with the clouds of heaven, and there was given unto him a 


246 


The Philosophy of 


kingdom and dominion and glory, that all people and nations 
and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlast¬ 
ing dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom 
that which shall not be destroyed.’’ This is also the destiny 
of the man of sin: “Then shall that wicked be revealed 
whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and 
shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” And is also 
at the end of the thousand years. When the dragon that was 
chained was cast into the bottomless pit, it was said : “He 
shall deceive the nations no more till the thousand years are 
fulfilled ; after that he must be loosed for a little season.” It 
is also said: “The woman which thou sawest is that great 
city which reigneth over the kings of the earth, and immedi¬ 
ately preceding her judgment we have the following : “ And 
the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of 
the nations fell, and great Babylon came in remembrance 
before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierce¬ 
ness of his wrath.” And we can but remark that such is the 
division of the Papal power at the present day. First. The 
beast with the little horn and seventh head, and it wounded to 
death, but living again in the image made to it. Second. The 
dragon, or Papal kings of Europe, who had been reigned over 
by the woman, Papacy, and confined in the bottomless pit for 
1,000 years, but now loosed from her authority. Third. The 
two-horned lamb-beast (Louis Napoleon, and now Victor 
Emmanuel), who made the image to the beast, which had the 
wound by the sword and did (thus) live. This last beast is 
also the “false prophet,” and the eighth which is of the seven, 
and goeth into perdition ; and as this is the beast which came 
up out of the bottomless pit, at the expiration of the thousand 
years, called “the angel of the bottomless pit,” it must have 
been, therefore, that which at the commencement of the thou¬ 
sand years had been chained and cast into that pit. “And 
the beast that thou sawest was, and is not, and shall ascend 
out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition.” Mark, it 
is not one of the heads, but is of the seven, that which 
remains of them, exercising all the temporal power held by 


God and the World. 


247 


the Papacy during the 1,260 years, or all that is left of it, and 
is therefore the tail of the dragon, or the eighth part, and is of 
the seven and goeth into perdition. The events of this gath¬ 
ering together of the nations, and the deception practiced by 
these three divisions of the dragon, now loosed out of his 
prison, is vividly brought to view and described under the 
pouring out of the sixth vial: ‘ ‘ And the sixth angel poured 
out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water 
thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east 
might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits , like 
frogs, come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the 
mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, 
for they are the spirits of devils, which go forth unto the kings 
of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them together 
to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. Behold, I 
come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his 
garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. And 
he gathered them together into a place called, in the Hebrew 
tongue, Armageddon ; and the seventh angel poured out his 
vial into the air, and there came a great voice out of the tem¬ 
ple of heaven, from the throne, saying, ‘ It is done.'' ” Here 
we see that the sources from whence the three unclean spirits 
issue, as they “go forth unto the kings of the earth,” result¬ 
ing in the gathering together of the nations, or forming them 
into alliances, according to their sympathies and interests, for 
the great conquest of worldly empire, are from the “ dragon, ” 
the Catholic kings, now loosed for a little season ; the beast, 
the Papal church, still seeking her lost dominion ; and thirdly, 
the false prophet, the image to the beast, made by France and 
Sardinia. 

When, however, they have thus succeeded and are on the 
eve of the mighty national conflict, the deception under which 
they have labored will be manifested, for the great battle is 
not to be fought among themselves, though this is their object 
and expectation, but is the battle of Armageddon, or of God 
Almighty, and fought between him and the wicked nations of 
the earth. Who “dashes them to pieces as the vessels of a 


248 


The Philosophy of 


potter.” Or, the stone cut out of the mountain here smites 
the image upon the feet, and breaks the whole metallic super 
structure to pieces together, which prove only to be chaff 
before the great onset of the “ wrath of the Lamb.” 

This scene winds up by the fulfillment of the great event, 
which alone will startle the world and wake its inhabitants to 
a realization of its true nature. “ Behold I come as a thief.” 


God and tee World. 


249 


CHAPTER XXV. 

THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON — ITS INSPIRED DESCRIPTION. 

The last great contest between right and wrong, God and 
the wicked, who have refused to be redeemed or submit to the 
government of their Maker while reconciliation was possible 
until it was too late, is described in awful grandeur in the 19th 
chapter of Revelations, and only interspersed with figures so 
as to bring it somewhere within the conception of mortal 
minds, so that the injunction might be heeded in time. “Be 
wise now, therefore, O ! ye kings. Be instructed, O ye inhab¬ 
itants of the earth, kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish 
when his wrath is kindled but a little.” 

“And I saw heaven open, and behold a white horse, and he 
that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and in 
righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes w r ere 
as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he 
had a name written that no man knew but he himself, and 
he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name 
is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in 
heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, 
white and clean ; and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword 
that with it he should smite the nations; and he shall rule 
them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the wine-press of 
the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God (for he is Almighty 
God ; “ the word was God”), and he hath on his vesture and 
on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of 
Lords. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth and 
their armies gathered together to make war against him that 
sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was 
taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles 
before him (or, as in the 17th chap. “In the sight of the 
32 


250 


The Philosophy of 


beast ”), witli which he deceived them that had received the 
mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image. These 
both were cast alive (they were living upon earth when this 
event came) into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” Here 
is the 'destiny of the beast and the false prophet and their 
armies, and can we not see the gathering preparatory to this 
last grand scene rapidly progressing % Behold Papacy 
intriguing to gain her lost power. Behold the two-horned 
lamb-beast and false prophet, France and Italy, agitating all 
Europe, especially the former, with her deceptive schemes 
under all manner of false pretension, intermeddling in the 
affairs of all other nations, which she has done within a few 
years, seeking nothing but her own self-aggrandizement at 
the reckless expense of all others. 

Behold, also, all the Catholic kings plotting together against 
civil and religious liberty naturally associated against Prussia 
and England, the representatives of Protestantism and free¬ 
dom in the old world. These three spirits are not only 
unclean, but like the frogs of Egypt, from which plague the 
figure is borrowed, pervaded the whole country. “ They go 
forth unto the kings of the whole world,” and, by their decep¬ 
tive influences, succeed in gathering the nations, to decide the 
supremacy of the world in the future. It seems as though it 
is only necessary thus briefly to allude to these scriptures in 
order to convince every attentive reader that their fulfillment 
is here wonderfully delineated, and well would it be if the 
nations thus doomed would take timely heed to the admoni¬ 
tion connected with them. “Let him that readeth under¬ 
stand. Blessed are they that hear the words of the prophecy 
of this book. 5 ’ The expression, ‘ 4 The great river Euphrates, 5 ’ 
upon which the sixth angel poured out his vial, and the 
theater of the action of the three unclean spirits, is a corres¬ 
ponding symbol to that of great Babylon, both of which are 
borrowed from the fact of the children of Israel being liSld 
seventy years in Babylonish captivity, the force of the symbol 
being seen in the fact of the Christian church having been 
held 1,260 years in the most perfect captivity by mystic Baby- 


God and the World. 


251 


Ion, Papal Pome. As the river Euphrates ran through the 
city of ancient Babylon, the capital of the Chaldean mon¬ 
archy, it is here used to symbolize Papal Rome during this 
stage of her history, and the term “waters” being explained 
to signify “peoples, nations, multitudes and kings.” Hence 
the great river Euphrates symbolizes the Roman Catholic 
kings, the Pope, and all their subjects at the period under 
consideration. 

“And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great 
river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up (the tem¬ 
poral power of Popery destroyed), that the way of the kings 
of the east might be prepared (Catholic kings of the eastern 
world — hemisphere),” now acting independent of the Papal 
hierarchy. As illustrative of the working of these deceptive 
spirits at the present time, we may mention the fact ‘ 6 that 
Napoleon has just discovered that Pius IX has been engaged 
with the Bourbons in plotting a conspiracy against him, and 
threatens the Pope that if it is continued he will not oppose 
the unity of Italy. In such an event, of course, the Italians 
would at once rise in their strength and drive the Pope, the 
Papal shadow of power , from his seat, and make Rome the 
capital of the kingdom of Italy.” In this threatened retalia¬ 
tion is seen the issuing of the spirit from the mouth of the 
false prophet , while the other two are also here involved. 
The Bourbons (the principal house of the dragon), the Pope 
(the beast), and presents us with, a clear view of the three 
unclean spirits. That these three spirits drive great Babylon 
into the predicted picture and condition in which she is found 
at the judgment, is further evident from the following: “And 
the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of 
the nations fell; and great Babylon came in remembrance 
before God to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierce¬ 
ness of his wrath, and every island fled away, and the moun¬ 
tains were not found.” 

Of course nothing but a preparation for a war on a grander 
scale than the world has ever before witnessed can fulfill th^ 
prophetic description, involving the events necessarily con- 


252 


The Philosophy of 


nected with it, presenting for human contemplation the last 
scene of prophetic history remaining to be fulfilled. But 
when this magnificent gathering is accomplished, the astound¬ 
ing announcement will be realized. “Behold, I come as a 
thief.” And the battle of Armageddon, the following des¬ 
cription of which gives us the last grand scene of the world’s 
dramatic history, will take place: “And the seventh angel 
poured out his vial into the air, and there came a great voice 
out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is 
done , and there were voices and thunders and lightnings, and 
there was a great earthquake, such as was not, since men were 
upon earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great.” This 
scene is also presented under the sounding of the seventh 
trumpet: “And another angel came out and stood at the 
altar, having a golden censer, and there was given unto him 
much incense, that he should offer it, with the prayers of all 
saints, upon the golden altar which was before the throne; 
and the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of 
the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand; 
and the angel took the censer and filled it with fire of the 
altar and cast it into the earth, and there were voices and 
thunderings and lightnings and an earthquake.” This is all 
summed up in the 20th chapter, thus : “And when the thou¬ 
sand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison 
(or the three unclean spirits, ‘the spirits of devils’), and 
shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quar¬ 
ters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to 
battle (the battle of Armageddon), the number of whom is as 
the sand of the sea, and they went up on the breadth of the 
earth and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the 
beloved city; and fire came down from God, out of heaven, 
and devoured them and the devil that deceived them. (The 
dragon, called the devil and Satan), was cast into a lake of 
fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, 
and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.” In 
this final disposition of the “man of sin,” its three divisions 


God and the World. 


253 


are distinctly recognized : The dragon, Catholic kings ; the 
Pope, the beast; and the false prophet. Louis Napoleon and 
Victor Emmanuel, or France and Italy. 


254 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE TWO WITNESSES SLAIN. CIVIL AND EELIGIOUS LIBEKTY. 

The first fourteen verses of the lltli chap, of Revelation 
contain a series of symbols indicative of events which not only 
corroborate, but furnish additional evidence upon this subject, 
so strikingly clear that the proper place for its examination is 
here. “And there was given me a reed like unto a rod, and 
the angel stood, saying, Rise and measure the temple of God, 
and the altar, and them that worship therein, but the court 
which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not, for 
it is given unto the Gentiles; and the holy city shall they 
tread under foot forty and two months. And I will give 
power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a 
thousand two hundred and three score days, clothed in sack¬ 
cloth. These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks 
standing before the God of the earth.” We are here again 
introduced to the treading under foot the sanctuary, holy city 
(church), or the 1,260 years of Papal persecution. The two 
witnesses who were to prophesy during this period, clothed 
in sackcloth, we understand to signify civil and religious 
liberty ; they are here represented by the two olive trees and 
the two golden candlesticks standing before the God of the 
earth. These symbols representing the truths taught respect¬ 
ing this subject, are quotations from Zechariah, the prophet, 
which we here introduce for the purpose of assisting us in 
understanding their meaning: ‘ ‘And the angel that talked 
with me came again and waked me, and said unto me, What 
seest thou? and I looked and behold a candlestick all of 
gold with a bowl upon the top, and seven lamps thereon, and 
seven pipes to the seven lamps, and two olive trees, one upon 
the right side, the other upon the left. Then said I unto him, 


God and the World. 


255 


What are these two olive trees and olive branches, which 
through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of 
themselves into the golden candlesticks? then said he unto 
me, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord 
of the whole earth.” In the investigation of the seven mes¬ 
sages to the seven churches, we have examined these symbols 
minutely, being more intimately connected with that part of 
Revelation (which see). We may remark, however, that we 
are here presented with a picture of the church under the 
gospel dispensation. Christ is represented as being among 
the seven lamps, or, in Revelation, the seven golden candle¬ 
sticks, amid which He walks. The two olive branches from 
the olive trees leading the golden oil into the golden candle¬ 
sticks, and which are explained to be the two anointed ones 
that stand by the Lord of the whole earth, or, as in Revelation, 
the two witnesses, or the two golden candlesticks standing 
before the God of the earth, and beautifully represents the 
diffusion of the genial light and healing influences of civil 
and religious liberty, which forever testify for God and 
against oppression, and which stood guard around the church 
during the 1,260 years of her sackcloth, or wilderness state, 
whence she had fled from the face of the dragon, who 
attempted to deprive her absolutely of these heaven-bestowed 
prerogatives, but failed, at least to a degree large enough to 
enable men to worship God according to the dictates of their 
own conscience, and therefore gave in continued testimony 
against the heaven-daring usurpations of Romish intolerance. 

The necessity for these witnesses was called into existence 
in the days of Constantine, by the adoption, into his man¬ 
made church, of the two principles which Hed brother to 
imbrue his hands in his brother’s blood, and this, too, think¬ 
ing that he did God’s service. The first was, that it was an 
act of virtue to deceive and lie, when by that means the inter¬ 
ests of the church might be promoted, and the other, that 
error in religion, when maintained and adhered to, after 
admonition, was punishable by civil penalties and corporeal 
tortures. By the execution of these infernal principles Rome 


256 


The Philosophy of 


invaded the prerogatives of God, and made her not only the 
curse of the world but the peculiar object of Jehovah’s ven¬ 
geance. During this long period the suffering church cried 
out for vengeance against this awful usurpation, and against 
which the opposing principles of civil and religious liberty 
not only in this world testified, but which will be found swift 
witnesses in the last great judgment against all the perpetra¬ 
tors of the gigantic iniquity. The consequences of making 
war on these two witnesses are thus described : “ And if any 

man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth and 
devoureth their enemies, and if any man will hurt them, he 
must in this manner be killed; these have power to shut 
heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy; and 
have power over waters to turn them to blood and to smite 
the earth with all plagues as often as they will.” By war¬ 
ring against these witnesses, Rome extinguished these golden 
lamps of God, subjected herself to all the horrors of the dark 
ages ; all the plagues, the blood and fire of persecution were 
her continual inheritance. She destroyed the liberties of the 
people and suffered the dreadful consequences of the worst des¬ 
potism the world ever saw. She deprived her subjects of relig¬ 
ious liberty, kindling the fires of persecution, and her sons 
became the victims for the burning. “ The fire proceeded out 
of their mouth and consumed their enemies.” She drove the 
church into seclusion and sackcloth, and her children, in con¬ 
sequence, were driven into darkness and perdition in the end. 
She stopped the flow of the golden oil of the gospel, which 
alone has power to heal the bad passions of men, and her 
sons became mad and vindictive. Thus the unholy warfare 
had the effect to shut up the benignant heavens, that no sweet 
rain of mercy and saving grace descended upon the seat of 
the beast for 1,260 years. “The man of sin was thus given 
over to believe a lie, that his children might all be damned, 
because they believed not the truth, but had pleasure in 
unrighteousness.” “And when they have finished their tes¬ 
timony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit 
shall make war against them and kill them, and their dead 


God and the World. 


257 


bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually 
is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified ; 
and they of the people and kindreds, and tongues and nations, 
shall see their dead bodies three days and a half, and shall 
not suffer their dead bodies to be putin graves; and they that 
dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them and make merry, 
and shall send gifts one to another, because these two prophets 
tormented them that dwell upon the earth. And after three 
days and a half the spirit of life from God entered into them, 
and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them 
that saw them, and they heard a great voice from heaven, 
saying unto them, ‘ Come up hither,’ and they ascended up 
to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies beheld them; and 
the same hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth 
part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men 
seven thousand, and the remnant were affrighted, and gave 
glory to the God of heaven. The second woe is past, and 
behold the third woe cometh quickly.” 

What strikes us first, in regard to the two witnesses, is, that 
the Papal power endeavored to destroy them, as its prosperhy 
and only hope of success depended upon the extinction of 
civil and religious liberty. Although it did not perfectly 
succeed in this, it did succeed in driving the church into a 
state of seclusion from the prominent notice of the world. 
“She was fed in the wilderness, where she had been driven 
from the face of the serpent,” and hence the witnesses prophe¬ 
sied during the 1,260 years, but in a sackcloth state. Christians 
were without the protection of government and the common 
rights of citizenship. “And I will give power unto my two 
witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred 
and three score days, clothed in sackcloth ’ hence the gates 
of hell did not absolutely prevail against the church; the 
hellish power of Rome was not equal to her desire, and which 
could only be satiated by the utter extermination of every man, 
woman and child who dared to utter a protest against her 
monstrous assumptions. Jesus, with his ever-sleepless e}^e, 
walking in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, watched 
33 


258 


The Philosophy of 


the progress of the man of sin. He had declared that the 
tribulation inflicted by her implacable hate npon the helpless 
chnrcli should be shortened, or that no flesh should be saved, 
for who would be found to profess Christ if it involved the 
immediate forfeiture of life ? Very few, we are sure. Jesus 
says, “None” and He consequently gave power to his two 
witnesses ; and though in a very secluded and humble man¬ 
ner, still they testified for God, and therefore against Rome. 
“They tormented them that dwelt upon the earth.” The 
burning words spoken by the reformers, assisted and pro¬ 
tected by some of the temporal rulers of the earth, measured 
swords with him who arrogantly sat in the place of God, but 
it was the sword of the spirit against the sword of blood 
which she (Rome) wielded. The Pope issued his bulls, but 
they burned them. He excommunicated, and they hurled 
back his thunders in derision. Of the conflict Daniel says : 
‘ k I beheld then, because of the great words which the horn 
speak.” He is now confined to words. The “great sword,” 
which he wielded for 1,260 years, is sheathed, and that forever. 
The God-given prerogatives of civil and religious liberty are 
now triumphant. Amenability to God alone, in matters of 
religion, has asserted its proper place, in defiance of Rome. 

The expression : “These have power to shut heaven, that 
it rain not in the days of their prophecy,” is a figure borrowed 
from the fact that Elijah the prophet prayed, and the heavens 
gave no rain for the space of three years and six months, and 
teaches the idea that if civil and religious liberty were des¬ 
troyed the sweet rain of righteousness would cease to fall 
upon man. It applies, however, more forcibly to what fol¬ 
lows, when the two witnesses shall be killed by the beast that 
ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, for it will be observed 
that the witnesses were not killed during the sackcloth period 
of their prophecy. “But this beast shall overcome and kill 
them, and their dead bodies shall lie three days and a half in 
the street of the great city” (the jurisdiction of the beast), 
which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our 
Lord was crucified. If our application of the beast which 


God and the World. 


259 


came out of the bottomless pit, prominently led on by Napo¬ 
leon the III, is correct, then it follows that he made war 
against the two witnesses and killed them, and that they lay 
dead within his dominion for the space of three days and a 
half, which, being symbolic time, means three years and a half. 
This prophecy, we think, had its fulfillment in the following 
events, most of which we have already considered, so that it 
will only be necessary to briefly advert to them : Pope Pius 
IX offered the people of his states, unsolicited, a constitution, 
which gave them civil liberty. This example startled the peo¬ 
ple of all the Catholic kingdoms in Europe, and their sub¬ 
jects also demanded constitutional government. Louis Phil- 
lippe became alarmed and fled to England. The republicans 
of France immediately established a republic, and on the 5th 
day of May Louis Napoleon was elected president. This 
unlooked for event almost blasted the hopes of the republi¬ 
cans, but they reasoned philosophically, and said, It is only 
for four years, and if he does prove what we fear, unfaithful 
to his trust, we can then elect another man. This feeling is 
thus expressed in the prophecy, in view of what Napoleon 
subsequently did: “ And they of the people and kindreds, 
and tongues and nations (not kings) shall see their dead 
bodies three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead 
bodies to be put in graves.” Napoleon had so far violated 
the constitution, by destroying the freedom of the press, dis¬ 
banding the clubs of Paris and reseating the Pope, thus prov¬ 
ing a traitor to his professed friendship for liberty, that in the 
fall of 1851 there was much talk of his impeachment, the fear 
of which led him to seize the reins of government, dissolved 
the national assembly, and had himself proclaimed emperor, 
thus, at a single blow, crushing out every vestige of liberty 
from the nation. This took place Dec. 2 , 1851. Here he 
killed the two witnesses or prophets which had tormented 
him, civil and religious liberty, both in the French republic, as 
well as in that of Home, and not only so, but, in consequence 
of his treachery and that of Pius IX, the entire liberal move¬ 
ment of 1848 was overthrown in every kingdom in Eurone 


260 


The Philosophy of 


By this event the anticipations of the friends of liberty were 
completely dissipated, and the witnesses which were dead, 
and which they hoped would rise again after the term of the 
presidency of Louis Napoleon had expired, so that they 
would not suffer them to be buried, was now hopelessly gone. 

A very striking fact to be considered here is the period cov¬ 
ering these events. Three days and a half—prophetic time, 
three years and a half. Napoleon was elected president of 
the French republic May 4, 1848, and immediately began 
his work of killing the tormenting prophets, civil and relig¬ 
ious liberty. Civil in relation to the French, but religious as 
well, in relation to the Pontifical government; indeed, the 
one implies the other. He overthrew the republic, as a des¬ 
potic dragon, on the 2d of Dec. 1851, which is three years and 
six months and a fraction of a month, but fractions are 
never noticed in prophecy unless named, and therefore fulfill¬ 
ing it to the letter, both as to time and the nature of the events 
themselves. By this reaction of priestcraft and kingcraft, 
Christianity and civilization took a retrogressive movement in 
Europe, and, as in the days of Elijah and Ahab, the heavens 
were shut up and gave no rain for the space of three years 
and six months. The figures, “ Sodom and Egypt, where 
also our Lord was crucified,” conveys the idea that he was 
thus crucified in this city. France being used to represent 
this great city, the theater of these events, the force of which, 
as well as its importance, will readily be perceived when we 
consider that upon Sodom God rained fire and brimstone, 
because of her persecution of his saints. The Sodomites even 
attempted to force the door of Lot’s house the night before 
their destruction, in their madness to persecute the two angels 
sent to deliver Lot and destroy the city. . So did God also 
overthrow Egypt, in the days of Moses, for the hardships and 
persecutions she imposed upon the Hebrew children, the 
church of God in that age, and also the massacre, in this 
same Paris, of seventy thousand Protestants on St. Bartholo¬ 
mew’s Eve, in the sixteenth century, martyred by Papal cru¬ 
elty. The servants of Christ are his representatives. Says 


God and the World. 


261 


he : “ Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these 

which believe in me, ye have done it unto me.” The city or 
nation, therefore, that crucifies Christ’s saints crucifies him 
“ afresh and puts him to an open shame.” The steady treach¬ 
ery of Louis Bonaparte during his presidential reign, curtail¬ 
ing the liberties of the people, especially in reseating the 
Pope, gave great encouragement to the sympathetic friends 
of despotism throughout Europe, particularly among the 
nobility of France, with the Bourbons and Orleanists, whose 
rejoicing at this brightening of their prospects is here 
expressed : “And they that dwell upon the earth shall 
rejoice over them (at seeing Napoleon kill them) and shall 
make merry, and shall send gifts, one to another, because 
these two prophets tormented them that dwell on the earth.” 
Verses eleven and twelve describe the destiny of the wit¬ 
nesses at the time Napoleon seized the reins of empire. All 
hope for vitalizing the prophets now dies: “And they ascended 
up to heaven and left the great city to its desperate doom.” 
The nation had effectually closed its gates against all liberty, 
the despot reigned supreme, and civil and religious liberty 
ascended to its native heaven. Another important fact which 
also goes to confirm this application of the prophecy is con¬ 
tained in the thirteenth verse: “And the same hour was 
there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, 
and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand, and 
the remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the God of 
heaven.” The term “earthquake,” when used as here, fig¬ 
uratively, signifies revolution — the upheaving of the political 
world. France is one of the most prominent of the ten origi¬ 
nal kingdoms, whose power had been given to support the 
Papal hierarchy, but in this revolution it became a republic, 
and consequently lost to the Papacy, the two forms of whose 
government are incompatible. “The tenth part of the city 
fell.” It is true that it did become despotic again, and did 
actually reseat the Pope, but it is just as true that it did not 
restore him to temporal power. After being thus reseated he 
was only a semblance, an image, of what he was before, While 


262 


The Philosophy of 


reigning over the kings of the earth. The lamb-beast said, 
after having himself ascended out of the bottomless pit: 
“Come, let ns make an image to the beast that had the 
wound by the sword and did live.” But instead of again 
ceding to the Pope his power he reserved it for himself. “ He 
exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him.” The 
expression : 6 ‘And the remnant were affrighted and gave glory 
to the God of heaven,” gives us the result and conduct of the 
friends of Louis Phillippe after his flight, who attempted to 
withstand the earthquake movement of the revolution, fight¬ 
ing the insurgents from behind barricades in the streets of 
Paris; but, discovering the fruitlessness of the attempt, gave 
it up and espoused the cause of liberty, not sincerely, but for 
the time being. “ They were affrighted and gave glory to the 
God of heaven.” Here we see how wonderfully God writes 
history in advance. By the use of a few simple symbols and 
figures, infinite wisdom maps out the prominent events of 
nations and epochs in unbroken chains, and with the most 
wonderful accuracy and force. 


God and tee World . 


263 


CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE SOUNDING OF THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. 

This brings us to tlie closing event of the sounding of the 
sixth angel, connected with which is the second woe. We 
may just remark here, that if we have given these figures and 
symbols the correct application, then we are within the sound¬ 
ing of the sixth and seventh angels, and are occupying the 
chronological space called “quickly” because the sounding 
of the seventh trumpet puts a period to the history of the 
present world. The reason why we have considered the events 
of the sixth trumpet before that of the five preceding ones is, 
the fact that they are so clearly applicable to those recent 
movements of the European kingdoms that we are thus better 
prepared to understand those which occur and are measured 
by the sounding of the first five, which we now propose to 
take up in the order of their sounding. Chapter viii, 2: “And 
I saw the seven angels which stood before God, and to them 
were given seven trumpets.” Sixth verse: “And the seven 
angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to 
sound. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and 
fire, mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth ; 
and the third part of the trees were burnt up, and all green 
grass was burnt up.” We understand these figures to repre¬ 
sent the fires of the Pagan persecutions of Christians, termi 
nating with the conversion of Constantine the Great. The 
green grass and trees signify the people of God. The hail and 
fire are figures borrowed from one of the plagues Moses 
brought upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians. “Hail and fire 
ran along the ground,” and indicate the instruments of Pagan 
persecution by which the blood of the church was spilled. 
We are free, however, to admit, that if the trumpets which 
follow this are not more easily and certainly to be under- 


264 


The Philosophy of 


stood, but little could be known about their meaning. The 
reason why we fix the events of the first angel here is, first, 
that it evidently describes persecution and death, and, sec¬ 
ondly, that it is prior to the career of Papacy, which will be 
apparent as we proceed. 

“And the second angel sounded, and, as it were, a great 
mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea, and the third 
part of the sea became blood, and the third part of the crea¬ 
tures which were in the sea and had life died, and the third 
part of the ships were destroyed.’’ The figure of a mountain 
burning and cast into the sea is a quotation from the prophecy 
of Jeremiah, li, 25: “Behold ! I am against thee, O destroying 
mountain, saith the Lord, which destroyest all the earth, and 
I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and will roll thee 
down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain !” 
This destroyer is not Babylon, the capital of The Chaldean 
monarchy, but the mystic Babylon of the Apocalypse, of 
which ancient Babylon was the type, she having destroyed 
Jerusalem and carried the children of God into captivity, and 
held them there seventy years — so mystic Babylon destroyed 
the church of God, and held her in awful captivity 1,260 years. 
This and the preceding chapter of this prophet are exclusively 
descriptive of mystic Babylon, and which clearly identifies her 
with Papal Borne. This will appear evident from running a 
brief parallel between them, thus : “Put yourselves in array 
against Babylon, round about; all ye that bend the bow, shoot 
at her ; spare no arrows, for she hath sinned against the Lord. 
Shout against her, round about; her foundations are fallen, 
her walls are thrown down, for it is the vengeance of the 
Lord; take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto 
her. Recompense her according to her work; according to 
all that she hath done, do unto her, for she hath been proud 
against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel.” Rev. xviii, 
6 : “Reward her even as she hath rewarded you, and double 
unto her double according to her works ; in the cup which she 
hath filled, fill it to her double.” Jer. “A drought is upon 
her waters, and they shall be dried up. I will take vengeance 


God and the World. 


265 


upon thee. I will dry up her sea, and make her springs 
dry.” Rev: “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon 
the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried 
up.” Jer: “Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver 
every man his soul; be not cut off in her iniquity, for this is 
the time of the Lord’s vengeance ; He will render unto her a 
recompense. My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and 
deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the 
Lord.” Rev: “ And I heard another voice from heaven, say¬ 
ing, 4 Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers 
of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues, for her sins 
have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her 
iniquities.” Jer. : “And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I 
will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swal¬ 
lowed up ’ ’ (the ten kingdoms of the dragon with the little 
horn. The Bel in Babylon, chained, and cast into her pit, and 
which are to be loosed out of that prison again), and the 
nations shall not flow together any more unto him” (she loses 
her temporal power). Rev. : “And the ten horns which 
thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore and 
shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and 
burn her with fire, for God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his 
will, and to agree, and to give their kingdom unto the beast 
until the words of God shall be fulfilled; and the woman 
which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the 
kings of the earth.” Jer.: “Babylon hath been a golden 
cup in the Lord’s hand, that made all the nations drunken ; 
the nations have drunken of her wine, therefore the nations 
are mad.” Rev. : “And there followed another angel, say¬ 
ing, Babylon is fallen, that great city, because she hath 
made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her forni¬ 
cation (expressions meaning the unholy connections of Rome 
with the Christian church); and the woman was arrayed in. 
purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious 
stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of 
her abominations.” Jer. : “Babylon is suddenly fallen and 
destroyed ; howl for her, take balm for her pain, if so be she 
34 


266 


The Philosophy of 


may be healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she is 
not healed; forsake her, and let us go, every one unto his own 
country, for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted 
up to the skies.” Rev. : “How much she hath glorified her¬ 
self and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give 
her, for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen and am no 
widow (the true church is a widow, mourning the return of 
the bridegroom), and shall see no sorrow, therefore shall her 
plagues come in one day, death, mourning and famine; and 
she shall be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord 
God who judgeth her ; and the kings of the earth who have 
committed fornication, and lived deliciously with her, shall 
bewail her and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke 
of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her torment, 
saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city, 
for in one hour is thy judgment come.” Zeph. ii, 15 : “This 
is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her 
heart, I am and there is none besides me (the Catholic 
claim of being the only church). How is she become a deso¬ 
lation, a place for bats to lie down in ; every one that passeth 
by her shall hiss and wag his head.” Rev. : “Babylon is 
fallen and become the cage of every unclean and hateful 
bird.” Isa. : “Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin, 
daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground; there is no throne 
(her temporal power had now gone), 0 daughter of the Chal¬ 
deans, for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate ; 
thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be 
seen.” Rev. : “These ten kings shall make her desolate 
and strip her naked. I will take vengeance, and I will not 
meet thee as a man. Sit thou silent and get thee into dark¬ 
ness, O daughter of the Chaldeans, for thou shalt no more be 
called the lady of kingdoms. I was wroth with my people, I 
have polluted my inheritance, and given them into thy hands 
(the sanctuary and the holy city, meaning the same. The 
church of God was given into the hands of Papal power for a 
time, times and a half, or for forty-two months); thou didst 
show them no mercy. Upon the Ancient (Paganism) hast 


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267 


thou very heavily laid thy yoke, and thou saidst, I shall be a 
lady forever ; so that thou didst not lay these things to thy 
heart, neither didst remember the last end of them, therefore 
hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest 
carelessly, that sayest in thine heart I am , and none else 
besides me ; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know 
the loss of children and widowhood.” Jer. : “ Therefore, 
behold, the days come that I will do judgment upon the 
graven images of Babylon, and her whole land shall be con¬ 
founded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her ; then 
the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein shall sing for 
Babylon, for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, 
saith the Lord. As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel 
to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.” 
Rev. : “ Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles 
and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her. And in her 
was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all that 
were slain upon the earth.” Jer. : “ Because the Lord hath 
spoiled Babylon and destroyed out of her the great mice.” 
Daniel: “In this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and 
a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. I beheld 
then because of the great words which the horn spalce. I 
beheld even till the beast was slain and his body given to the 
burning flame.” Jer.: “And it shall be, when thou hast 
made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a 
stone to it and cast it into the midst of Euphrates ; and thou 
shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from 
the evil that I will bring upon her.” Rev.: “And a mighty 
angel took up a stone like a great mill stone, and cast it into 
the sea, saying thus, With violence shall great Babylon be 
thrown down, and shall be found no more at all, for by thy 
sorceries were all nations deceived.” 

It will be seen by these last parallel passages that the Euph¬ 
rates of the prophet is the same as the Euphrates of the Reve¬ 
lation, comprehending the Papal power and all her sympa¬ 
thizers. We might continue, almost without limit, these paral¬ 
lels from the prophets and Revelation, but they are so beauti- 


268 


The Philosophy of 


fully arranged and applied, in the order of fulfillment, by the 
latter, that it is further unnecessary. By these quotations, 
however, we are made acquainted with an important fact, 
which is, that if we would understand the prophets we must 
take the Book of Revelations as the key to their meaning. 
Hence it is written: “ Blessed are they who hear the words 
and keep the sayings of this hook.” It will also be obvious 
that we have not introduced those numerous passages as de¬ 
scriptive of the events of the second trumpet merely, but as 
those principally covered by the sounding of the seven, which 
we have found so minutely described by the prophets, and 
from which we have simply made selections of the most promi¬ 
nent features, and by which we cannot fail to see that the 
mystic Babylon of the prophets and Revelation has its fulfill¬ 
ment in the history of Papal Rome, classified and identified 
under the symbolization of the sounding of the seven trumpets. 


God and the World. 


269 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE SOUNDING OF THE THIRD ANGEL. 

W ith tlie closing remarks of tlie last chapter we proceed 
with the investigation of these chains of events. “And the 
third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, 
burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of 
the rivers and upon the fountains of waters ; and the name of 
the star is called wormwood; and many men died of the waters 
because they were made bitter.” The term “wormwood” 
signifies dejection, sorrow and suffering. Ex. xv, 23 : “And 
when they came to Marah they could not drink of the waters 
of Marah, for they were bitter, therefore the name of it was 
called Marah ; and the people murmured against Moses, say¬ 
ing, What shall we drink \ and he cried unto the Lord, and 
the Lord showed him a tree, which, when he had cast into 
the waters, they were made sweet.” Ruth i, 20: “And she 
said unto them, call me no more Xaomi, but call me Marah; 
for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.” The 
great star that fell from heaven is the same as the angel of 
the bottomless pit, who came down from heaven with a great 
chain in his hand, and bound the dragon and cast him into 
it, and, as we have seen, signifies the advent of Papacy, 
and which is most wonderfully described by the Prophet 
Isaiah, who brings out almost all the prominent features of 
the self-exalted man of sin, “the abomination of desolation.” 
Her satanic character as in alliance with hell, her power over 
the nations, her loss of that power. The nations turned 
against her, the church rejoicing over her fall, the kings, when 
released from her power. Her character as the angel of the 
pit. With these remarks we need only quote the passages 


270 


The Philosophy of 


thus descriptive, in order to show their applicability to Papal 
Rome. Isa. xiv: “Thou shalt take up this proverb against 
the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased; 
the golden city ceased % The Lord hath broken the staff of the 
wicked and the scepter of the rulers, he who smote the people 
with a continual stroke (he shall wear out the saints of God 
for 1,260 years). He who ruled the nations in angpr, he is 
persecuted and none hinderetli. The whole earth is at rest 
and is quiet; they break forth into singing, yea, the fig trees 
rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou 
art laid down no feller is come up against us. Hell from 
beneath is moved to meet thee at thy coming ; it stirreth up 
the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth. It 
hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations 
(the revolution commenced by Pius IX in 1848); all they 
shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as 
we ? art thou become like unto us ? (These are the Catholic 
nations after having assumed their independence of Papal 
power.) Thy pomp is brought down to the ground, and the 
noise of thy viols; the worm is spread under thee, and the 
worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Luci¬ 
fer, son of the morning % How art thou cut down to the 
ground which didst weaken the nations ? For thou hast said 
>dn thine heart, I will ascend into heaven; I will exalt my 
throne above the stars of God (the little horn who exalted 
himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped); 
I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the 
sides of the north; I will be like the Most High (sitting 
in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God); 
yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit 
(the son of perdition). They that see thee shall narrowly 
look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man 
that made the earth to tremble, and did shake kingdoms; 
that made the world a wilderness, and destroyed the cities 
thereof, and opened not the house of his prisoners” (the cells 
of the inquisition) ? How appropriately is he named by the 
revelator, thus: “ And they had a king over them, which is 


God and the World. 


271 


the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew 
tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name 
' Apollyon ” (a destroyer). Isa.: “ All the kings of the nations, 
even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house, but 
thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch (this 
is the resurrection of the head that was wounded to death, and 
his deadly wound healed, by Napoleon making the image to 
the beast), and, as the remnant of those that are slain, thrust 
through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit, 
as a carcass trodden under foot. Thou shalt not be joined 
with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land 
and slain thy people; the seed of evil-doers shall never be 
renowned.” These passages so clearly indicate the events of 
the sounding of the seven angels, that it seems only necessary 
to transcribe them in order that the correspondence and 
fulfillment may be seen. Under the symbol of the fallen star, 
called wormwood, we have taught the inauguration of Papacy, 
under whose dominion, poisoned by her bitter spirit, the saints 
of God suffered martyrdom. “ Many men died of the* waters, 
because they were bitter.” 


272 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE SOUNDING OF THE FOURTH TRUMPET. 

“ And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the 
sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third 
part of the stars, so as the third part of them were dark¬ 
ened, and the day shone not for the third part of it, and the 
night likewise.” These figures — sun, moon and stars — are 
the symbolic church, prominently brought to view in the 
twelfth of Revelation : “I saw another wonder in heaven, a 
woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, 
and upon her head a crown of twelve stars,” etc. These, 
being darkened, indicate the effect upon the church by the full 
establishment of antichrist, developing what is emphatically 
denominated “ the dark ages.” The church was now in the 
midnight of her captivity, while the two witnesses prophesied 
in sackcloth, and it is no exaggeration to consider one-third 
of her light as being extinguished. The event which closes up 
the sounding of the fourth angel is thus described: ‘‘ And I 

beheld and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, 
saying, with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants 
of the earth, by reason of the voices of the other trumpet of 
the three angels which are yet to sound.” “And the fifth 
angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the 
earth, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit; 
and he opened the bottomless pit, and there arose a smoke out 
of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and 
the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit; and 
there came out of the smoke locusts upon earth, and unto 
them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have 
power; and it was commanded them that they should not 
hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither 
any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God 


God and the World. 


273 


in their foreheads, and it was not given that they should kill 
them, but that they should be tormented five months, and 
their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when it striketh 
a man. 

“And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not 
find it, and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. 
And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared 
unto battle, and on their heads were as it were crowns of gold, 
and their faces were of men. And they had hair as the hair 
of woman, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions, and they 
had breast-plates, as it were, of iron ; and the sound of their 
wings was as the sound of chariots of many horsemen running 
to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there 
were stings in their tails, and their power was to hurt men 
five months. And they had a king over them, which is the 
angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue 
is Abaddon, but in the Greek Apollyon ; one woe is past and 
behold there come two woes more hereafter.” It is certain that 
these figures represent men ^running swiftly to battle. This 
scripture has been applied to Mohammedan warfare, waged 
against Rome by Othoman. But if there were no other 
reasons against such an application, the fact that the most 
prominent symbol fails to convey a proper idea of the nature 
of that war, would be conclusive. This is the scorpion sting. 
The scorpion sting, although it is attended with excruciating 
pain, is very seldom, if ever, destructive of life ; hence it rather 
represents a war, the design of which is not to kill, and one 
which is eminently just, while the Mohammedan warfare and 
armies were as ferocious and devastating and left greater ruin 
behind than that produced by almost any other warriors of 
the world. To these armies, thus symbolized, it was given 
that they should not MU those against whom they were led, 
but that they should hurt them excruciatingly, so that in their 
pain death would be preferable. This reference to the appli¬ 
cation of scripture by others, our readers will perceive is a 
digression from our general course, and, if we choose, we 
might fill volumes in this way, but it would only serve to 
35 


274 


The Philosophy of 


darken and mystify, instead of aiding in the investigation of 
Bible truth, and could not fail to produce opposite results. 

The event, however, by which we are able to fix the appli¬ 
cation of this highly figurative scripture, is the identity of 
this star, which fell from heaven to earth, with the angel 
which came down from heaven having the key of the. bottom¬ 
less pit, chaining the dragon and casting him into it; the dif¬ 
ference being, that his first mission marked the commencement 
of the thousand years, shutting the dragon up in the bottom¬ 
less pit, and the second was at its close, loosing him again out 
of that pit, and from which these warriors thus issued, whom 
we have already shown to be the Catholic kings of Europe. 
But simultaneously with these, thus coming out from the civil 
power of Papacy, there also came the revolutionary move¬ 
ments of the people of those kingdoms, demanding of their 
sovereigns constitutional rights, which movement was inaugu¬ 
rated by Pius IX offering a constitution to his subjects of the 
Papal States, and for a year was the head and leader of the 
people against the kings in favor of civil liberty, and that, too, 
against his own faithful Catholic kings, ordering his bishops 
to go into the streets and encourage the people fighting behind 
barricades for liberty. This contest is what is signified by the 
strikes of the scorpion’s sting. The object of these liberals 
was not to kill; all that they asked was that their sovereigns 
would grant them constitutional liberty. They did not even 
ask republican governments, and the French and Roman 
republics were only established after their sovereigns, Louis 
Philippe and Pius IX, had fled from their thrones ; but when 
even their sovereigns came out and granted the people consti¬ 
tutions, they shouted, “Long live the king! ” In the whole 
history of the world there was, perhaps, never such an exten¬ 
sive revolution, fitly symbolized by the locusts of Egypt, 
from which plague this figure is borrowed. In 1848 every 
Catholic kingdom in Europe was in arms. All the people 
desired was constitutional liberty, and, when their princes 
acceded to this demand, we repeat, the people shouted “Long 
live the prince.” They did not kill or desire to do so, but to 


God and the World. 


275 


this extent they hurt their kings ; and it was also true that 
the nobles, generally, were opposed to making these conces¬ 
sions to the people. Indeed, the rulers were so excruciatingly 
pained by having constitutions forced from them, as was the 
case in some instances, at the point of the bayonet, that the 
language here used only expresses it: “ They desired to die.” 
This supposed outrage by the people upon what they had 
always claimed for themselves, “the divine right of kings,” 
and their exasperation under it, was manifested when the 
reaction of the despots took place, which was started by the 
usurpation of Louis Napoleon overthrowing the liberties of 
the people of France. The extent of their suppressed scor¬ 
pion stings are to be measured by the terrible retaliation upon 
the people when the reactionary opportunity presented itself. 
This trumpet closes thus: “They had a king over them, 
which is the angel of the bottomless pit.” This is the Pope, 
the head of the Catholic system, founded not upon Christ, but 
Peter, assuming him to have been the first Pope. 

It is true that Pius IX, in these strange liberal movements, 
undertook to open the despotic doors of Papacy, in order to 
make it accord with freedom ; but, as we have seen, met with 
the impossible task of granting civil liberty, and not religious 
also, which compelled him, though it may have been that he 
was better than his system, to prove false to the promises he 
had given his people, and to fall back again into his old char¬ 
acter of changeless infallibility, the true representative of the 
“abomination of desolation;” hence, at the close of the 
events through which he had so rapidly passed, he still stands 
forcibly symbolized by the Hebrew Abaddon and Greek Apoll- 
yon, the unequaled destroyer of the rights of man. 

To show that this monstrous usurpation remains as arro¬ 
gant and unmodified as ever, even in the dark ages, we here 
introduce the dogma of infallibility issued from the late ecu¬ 
menical council, held at Rome. The translation of its five 
canons is as follows : 

1. If any one should say that the Episcopal chair of the 
Roman church is not the true and real infallible chair of 


276 


The Philosophy of 


blessed Peter, or that it has not been divinely chosen by God 
as the most solid, indefectible and incorruptible rock of the 
whole Christian church, let him be anathema. 

2. If any one should say that there exists in the world 
another infallible chair of the truth of the gospel of Christ our 
Lord, distinct and separate from the chair of blessed Peter, let 
him be anathema. 

3. If any one should deny that the divine magisterium of 
the chair of blessed Peter is necessary to the true way of eter¬ 
nal salvation for all men, whether faithful or unfaithful, 
whether laymen or bishops, let him be anathema. 

4. If any one should say that the Roman Pontiff, legiti¬ 
mately elected, is not by divine right the successor of blessed 
Peter, even in the gift of the infallibility of magisterium , and 
should deny to any one of them the prerogative of infallibility 
for teaching the church the word of God, pure from all cor¬ 
ruption and error, let him be anathema. 

4. If any one should say that general councils are estab¬ 
lished by God in the church, as a power of feeding the divine 
flock in the word of faith, superior to the Roman Pontiff, or 
equal to him, or necessary by divine institution, in order that 
the magisterium of the Roman bishop should be preserved 
infallible, let him be anathema. 


God and the World . 


277 


CHAPTER XXX. 

THE SOUNDING OF THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 

u And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from 
the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God, say¬ 
ing to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four 
angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And 
the four angels were loosed which were prepared for an hour 
and a day and a month and a year, to slay the third part of 
men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two 
hundred thousand thousand ; and I heard the number of 
them, and thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that 
sat on them, having breast-plates of fire and of jacinth and 
brimstone, and the heads of the horses were as the heads of 
lions, and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brim¬ 
stone. By these were the third part of men killed, for their 
power was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails 
were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they 
do hurt; and the rest of the men which were not killed by 
these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, 
that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold and of 
silver, brass, stone and wood, which neither can see nor hear 
. nor walk ; neither repented they of their murders nor of their 
sorceries, nor of their fornications nor of their thefts.” 

Preparatory to the examination of the events of this 
trumpet, we wish to make a remark in regard to the division 
of men, here called “the third part,” against whom these 
war movements are turned, which is, that the contestants in 
all these prophetic events are divided into four divisions, 
Jews, Pagans, Papists and Christians. Mohammedans are not 
included, because they are not known in the prophecies ; if 
they were, it would make five divisions, classified by so many 
forms of religion, and which would be introduced into pro- 


278 


The Philosophy of 


plietic scripture, while there are but four, clearly designated 
in numerical order, under the opening of the first four of the 
seven seals. In connection with that series of events we will 
here merely observe that the four beasts which appear under 
the opening of the first four of the seals represent the church 
passing through four of its most prominent periods, showing 
that the three last-named divisions are the Pagan, Papal and 
Christian, and especially that the last two are the Papal and 
Christian, the third and fourth. Rev. iv, 7: “The first beast 
was like a lion and the second beast like a calf; the third 
beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a fly¬ 
ing eagle.” The third beast, which had a face as a man, sym¬ 
bolizes Papacy, or the “third part of men.” As in the 
sounding of the preceding trumpet, the European movements 
of 1848 for freedom were also turned against this third part of 
men, but who were not then to be killed, only stung by the 
scorpion; but it will be observed that the conflict presented 
under the sounding of the sixth angel is deadly. We under¬ 
stand the four angels bound in the great river Euphrates to be 
what is popularly called “the holy alliance.” This was a 
league formed between the emperors of Russia and Austria 
and the king of Prussia, by which they ostensibly bound 
themselves, among other things, to be governed by Christian 
principles in all their political transactions. The alliance was 
ratified at Paris, Sept. 26, 1815. England afterward joined 
it. The battle of Waterloo was fought June 18, 1815. The 
great object of this alliance was to form a balance of power 
in Europe, so as to prevent another Napoleon, or one like 
him, from rising up on the whirlwind of popular frenzy, and 
again disturbing the peace of the world, or from the danger, 
of involving Europe in another great continental war, like 
that through which she was passing under the career of 
Napoleon the First. Since this period, until recently, they 
have accomplished this object. As might have been expected, 
such an alliance, to Napoleon the Third, would be a peculiar 
object of hatred, and he has effectually broken it up, by the 
formation of other and special alliances which has resulted in 


God and the World. 


279 


setting the members of the holy alliance at variance among 
themselves, and indeed involving them in war with each other. 
Through the instrumentality of Napoleon, in the Crimea war, 
were allied France, England, Austria, Prussia and Turkey 
against Russia, and, of course, defeated and humbled the 
Northern Czar of all the Russias ending with the battle of 
Sebastapol. His next project was in allying with Sardinia 
in a declaration of war against Austria, resulting in the defeat 
of the latter at the battle of Solferino. He has carried out 
these prodigies, not only in defiance of the holy alliance, and 
thus unloosing its bonds, but to the astonishment of the world 
he has, by his miraculous intrigues, had the assistance of the 
individual members of the holy alliance, one or more at a 
time, in his interests of destroying it as a whole. In opposi¬ 
tion to public sentiment he had England thus engaged; 
Austria, Prussia and Sardinia likewise. The latter against 
her own will and interest has been compelled to assist him in 
the suppression of the republican movement in the Roman 
States, and in the defense ostensibly of the Pope, but really, 
of Napoleon himself, and in defiance of the allies he has held 
possession of Rome since 1848, who, by the hostilities mani¬ 
fested toward each other, through the intrigues of this won¬ 
derful plotter and deceiver, have become so suspicious of each 
other that they cannot be brought to act conjointly against 
Bonaparte, their common enemy. The four angels are there¬ 
fore effectually loosed, and the transactions which have 
brought about this result have been among the Papal and 
Greek divisions of the Catholic church, the heads of which 
are the Patriarch of St. Petersburgh and the Pope of Rome. 
This locality is symbolized by the great river Euphrates, in 
which the four angels were bound and thus loosed. The 
sources whence issue the agencies which accomplish the 
loosing of the four angels are more definitely presented under 
the pouring out of the sixth vial, upon the great river 
Euphrates, already examined, the immediate results of which 
are thus described: 

“ And I saw three unclean spirits, like frogs, come out of 


280 


The Philosophy of 


tlie mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and 
out of the mouth of the false prophet: first, the dragon (the 
Catholic kings); second, the beast (Papacy); third, the false 
prophet (Napoleon). The work of these spirits, principles, or 
interests, is to gather the nations together to the great battle 
of Armageddon, or God Almighty ; of course this is not con¬ 
templated by them, but it is the result and takes place to 
their eternal dismay. These spirits commenced their opera¬ 
tion in 1848, and are to continue until the end of the world. 
According to this divine history there cannot be expected 
another period of such peace among the nations as that which 
followed the formation of the “holy alliance,” in 1815, and 
broken up by Napoleon in 1848, and since, during which the 
progress of Christianity was only equaled in the Apostolic 
age. 

The work of preserving the peace of the world is attributed 
to four angels, and which not only corroborates, but furnishes 
additional light on the subject of loosing the four angels 
bound in the great river Euphrates, and which symbolize the 
same power in both instances, accomplishing the same work. 
Rev. vii : “And after these things I saw four angels standing 
on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the 
earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth nor on the 
sea nor on any tree. And I saw an angel ascending from the 
east, having the seal of the living God ; and he cried with a 
loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt 
the earth and the sea and the trees, saying, Hurt not the earth 
nor the sea nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of 
our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them 
that were sealed, an hundred and forty and four thousand of 
all the tribes of the children of Israel.” Then follows the 
particular statement to the effect that twelve thousand were 
sealed from each tribe. The subject is again introduced in 
the fourteenth chapter: “And I looked, and lo ! a Lamb 
stood on the mount of Zion, and with him an hundred and 
forty and four thousand, having their Father’s name written 
in their foreheads ; and I heard a voice from heaven, as the 


God and the World. 


281 

voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder; and 
I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps, and 
they sang as it were a new song before the throne and before 
the four beasts (seraphims) and the elders ; and no man could 
learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand 
which were redeemed from the earth, being the first fruits unto 
God and the Lamb ; and in their mouth was found no guile, 
for they are without fault before the throne of God.” 

In regard to those thus sealed we cannot see how there can 
be a question as to who are meant, for they are declared to be 
tli z first fruits unto God and the Lamb (God incarnate) and 
are, therefore, those converts to Christianity made from among 
the Jews, before the Gentile dispensation began, which was 
the three years and a half of the seventy weeks after the cru¬ 
cifixion. The great commission was: “Go ye into all the 
world and preach the gospel to every creature, beginning at 
Jerusalem .” And the seventy went out under the prohibi¬ 
tion : “Go not into the way of the Gentiles, or in any city of 
the Samaritans enter ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of 
the house of Israel.” The gospel being thus confined to the 
Jews, these first fruits unto God and the Lamb were sealed 
from among the twelve tribes, including the apostles them¬ 
selves. Paul recognizes this distinction: “And we also, 
which have the first fruits of the spirit” etc. From the 
eighth chapter it seems that not only the hundred and 
forty and four thousand, but another class were sealed after 
these. Ninth verse: “After this I beheld, and lo a great 
multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, kin¬ 
dreds, people and tongues, stood before the throne and before 
the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands, 
and they cried with a loud voice,, saying, Salvation to our 
God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, and 
all the angels stood around about the throne and about the 
elders, and the four seraphims fell before the throne on their 
faces and worshiped God, saying, Amen ; blessing, glory, wis¬ 
dom, thanksgiving, honor, power and might be unto our God 
forever and ever. And one of the elders answered, saying 
36 


282 


The Philosophy of 


unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes, 
and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou 
knowest; and he said unto me, These are they which came 
out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and 
made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” It is evident 
that those sealed of the Jewish tribes was not done during 
the prevailing tribulation here, of Papacy, through which the 
great multitude came. It is also as evident that those sealed 
while the four angels were holding the four warring winds of 
the earth, was after both of these periods. By turning again 
to the fourteenth chapter, we see that it was after the hundred 
and forty and four thousand were sealed that this angel, 
ascending from the east, began his flight with the seal of the 
living God, and that it was during this time of national peace 
that this last class were sealed, being those who shall believe 
the gospel message from the time of the formation of the 
“holy alliance,” 1815, until the end of the world. 

As the apostolic age was one of unparalleled peace among 
the nations, and, as the Jews during their whole history were 
the type of the Gentile Christian church and age, therefore, 
the hundred and forty and four thousand sealed of the tribes 
of Israel, in that age, is here introduced as typical of those 
who should be sealed in this age of peace, secured to the 
world by these four angels (or allies), standing on the four 
corners of the earth holding the warring winds of the nations, 
or while they are bound in the great river Euphrates, and to 
whom it is given finally to hurt the earth, who, when loosed, 
are gathered together to dispute the conquest of the earth. 
This angel, still having the seal of God, is identical with the 
one brought to view in the 14th chapter, described imme¬ 
diately after the first fruits are sealed. “And I saw another 
angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel 
to preach unto them that dwelt on the earth, and to every 
nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying, with a 
loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of 
his judgment is come.” This, of course, is the last phase or 
peculiarity of the gospel to mankind, its distinguishing 


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283 


feature being the announcement of the near approach of the 
last great judgment, which is calculated to startle the world 
with fear. “ Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of 
his judgment is come.” But to demonstrate the chronology 
of this message, it is addressed to the men who were in dangei 
of worshiping the image of the beast, and, as Napoleon the 
III made this image, it therefore takes place in the present 
period of the world’s history, verse 8th. “And there fol¬ 
lowed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen (loss 
of her temporal power), that great city, because she hath 
made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her forni¬ 
cation. And the third angel followed them saying, with a 
loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image , and 
receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same 
shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured 
out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, and he 
shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of 
the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb, and the 
smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever, and 
they have no rest day nor night who worship the beast and 
his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name; 
here is the patience of the saints. And I heard a voice from 
heaven saying unto me, Write, blessed are the dead that die 
in the Lord from henceforth, yea, saith the spirit, that they 
may rest from their labor, and their works do follow them.” 
They are blessed now because their reward has come, from 
henceforth they rest. They have now had their resurrection, 
together with all the righteous dead, and have entered into 
the eternal rest “that had remained for the people of God.” 
They are now rewarded according to their works, which had 
followed them to the judgment, and which immediately fol¬ 
lows the description of the great harvest, and which Jesus 
says is at the end of the world, which subject we propose to 
consider by itself. Those who were sealed by hearing the 
proclamation of the everlasting gospel, and who were warned 
against becoming contaminated with the abominations of 
Borne, as sympathizers or as apologists, which is peculiarly 


284 


The Philosophy of 


important for the Protestant church at the present day to 
heed, are seen and described by the angels which followed. 
“And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire; and 
them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his 
image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, 
stand on a sea of glass, having the harps of God, and they 
sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of 
the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord, 
God, Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou king of 
saints. Who shall not fear thee, 0, Lord, and glorify thy 
name ? for thou only art holy ; for all nations shall come and 
worship before thee, for thy judgments are made manifest.” 
There is another important point to be considered in regard to 
the loosing of the four angels bound in the great river 
Euphrates, which is, that when it is accomplished it does 
not follow that the battle of Armageddon is immediately 
fought, or that the nations should be immediately gathered 
together for the great contest. Indeed, the first work of 
injury they inflict is upon the Catholic powers themselves, or, 
more properly, the center of Catholic power (the Pope), by 
stripping him of his temporal power. The idea, that the third 
part of men who suffered these plagues, and did not thereby 
repent of their evil deeds, is, that when the holy alliance is 
broken up by the miraculous working of the lamb-beast, 
France, a professed Catholic nation itself, the Catholic powers 
will suffer most in consequence, and how wonderfully has this 
been fulfilled since the advent of Napoleon the III. His 
interference with Homan affairs gives him a foot-hold in Italy 
and an advantage over all the other powers of Europe. The 
ostensible reason he assigned for taking it was sympathy for 
the Pope, but really was one of self-aggrandizement. The 
holy alliance is so fatally destroyed that there is no more bal¬ 
ance of power, or security of permanent peace in Europe, so 
that, by the slightest accident, such as the death of Louis 
Napoleon, a great continental war is liable to take place. But 
from God’s history of coming events we learn that when the 
next great gathering of these kingdoms in armies takes place, 


Gob and the Would. 


285 


and to fulfill the prophecy it must be on a scale unparalleled 
in the past, it will be the last great battle of God Almighty. 
Of it, Daniel says: “At that time Michael shall stand up, 
the great Prince (Christ), who standeth for the children of 
thy people, and there shall be a time of trouble, such as was 
not since the beginning of the world, and at that time thy 
people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found writ¬ 
ten in the book, and many of them that sleep in the dust of 
the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to 
shame and everlasting contempt.” The four angels are no 
more bound in the Euphrates. The four angels who stood on 
the four corners of the earth, holding its warring elements, 
have now let go, and the fatal winds lash the stormy billows 
of human passion into fearful fury, for to these emblematical 
angels was given to hurt the earth, the sea and the green trees, 
figurative of the people and nations of the whole world, which 
scene is brought out more prominently under the sounding of 
the seventh trumpet and the last woe, which brings us to its 
examination. 


286 


The Philosophy of 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

SOUNDING OF THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 

Although this is the last of the seven trumpets, yet it is 
not to be confounded with that called the “ great trumpet ,” 
by the prophet, or the resurrection trumpet by Paul, thus 
brought to view : “For the Lord himself shall descend from 
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the 
trump of God , because this is a literal trumpet, while the 
seven are only symbols. The seventh trumpet occupies in its 
description the whole of the tenth and most of the eleventh 
chapters, just like all these symbolic chains of events, assum¬ 
ing greater magnitude and comprehensiveness as we approach 
the last.” And I saw another mighty angel come down from 
heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his 
head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pil¬ 
lars of tire, and he had in his hand a little book open, and he 
sat his right foot upon the sea and his left foot upon the earth 
and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth, and when 
he had cried seven thunders uttered their voices, and I was 
about to write, and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto 
me, seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and 
write them not. And the angel which I saw stand upon the 
earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that 
liveth forever and ever that there should be time no longer ; 
but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he 
shall begin to sound the mystery of God should be finished, 
as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. And the 
voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and 
said, go and take the little book, and I went unto the angel 
and said unto him, give me the little book, and he said take 
it and eat it up, and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it 
shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little 


God and the World. 


287 


book out of the angel’s hand and ate it up, and the angel said 
unto me, thou must prophesy again before many peoples, 
nations, tongues and kings.” Chapter eleventh. “ And the 
seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, 
saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms 
of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and 
ever. And the four and twenty elders which sat before God 
on their seats fell upon their faces and worshiped God, say¬ 
ing, we give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, 
and wast, and art to come, because thou hast taken to thee 
thy great power and hast reigned. And the nations were 
angry and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that 
they should be judged and that thou shouldst give reward to 
thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that 
fear thy name, small and great, and that thou shouldst 
destroy them that destroy the earth. And the temple of God 
was open in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark 
of his testimony. And there were lightnings and voices and 
thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.” 

In this series of events the first thing claiming our attention, 
and which marks the commencement of the sounding of the 
seventh trumpet, is the mighty angel standing upon the earth 
and the sea, with a little book open, the contents of which is 
one solemn declaration: “Time shall ~be no longer .” The 
revelator was directed to devour its contents, or, as here, 
the book itself, signifying that at the time it applies this sub¬ 
ject will be understood, and then that he must prophesy again 
before many peoples, nations, tongues and kings. From this 
it would seem that there would be a proclamation made again, 
just as it had been done before, concerning the end of the 
prophetic periods. “Time shall be no longer,” and the 
approaching dissolution of the world, and that, owing to the 
many failures before, it would be a very bitter task, although 
sweet to the servants of Christ, who thus saw the approaching 
fruition of their hopes, yet a most bitter duty to promulgate 
such an unwelcome truth to a sinful world of scoffers. 

The' next important event here is the closing of the gospel 


288 


The Philosophy of 


dispensation. “But in the days of the voice of the seventh 
angel, when he shall begin to sound, the “ mystery of God 
shall le finished as he hath declared to his servants, the 
prophets. That what is here called the mystery of God, and 
which had been declared to the prophets, means the gospel 
dispensation of mercy and grace to the Gentiles, is proved by 
the following, Eph. iii, 1-9 : “ For this cause I, Paul, the pris¬ 
oner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles , if ye have heard of 
the dispensation of the grace of God, which is given me to 
you-ward, how that by revelation he made known unto me* 
the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words, whereby when 
ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of 
Christ (or God), which in other ages was not made known 
unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy 
apostles and projfiiets by the spirit; that the Gentiles should 
be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his 
promises in Christ by the gospel, wdiereof I was made a min¬ 
ister, according to the gift of the grace of God, given unto me 
by the effectual working of his power, unto me, who am the 
least of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach 
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to 
make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery , 
which, from the beginning of the world, hath been hid in 
God.” That the Gentiles were to have a dispensation of 
mercy as well as the Jews was a mystery, and “the mystery 
of God,” because hid in God from the foundation of the 
world, until revealed to Paul, and through him made known 
to the other apostles, the closing up of which, according to 
John, marks the sounding of the seventh trumpet. Simulta¬ 
neous with this closing will be heard great voices in heaven, 
saying, “The kingdoms of this world are become the king¬ 
doms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for¬ 
ever and ever.” It will be seen that this is the event follow¬ 
ing the finishing of the mystery of God, and, therefore, can¬ 
not be the conversion of those kingdoms to Christianity, 
because, before this, the door of mercy is forever closed and 
the gospel dispensation ended. 


God and the World. 


289 

This is the same view of it shown to Daniel: “ In the days 
of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom 
which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be 
left to other people, bat it shall break in pieces and consume 
all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Thou sawest 
till that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hand, 
which smote the image upon the feet, that were of iron and 
clay, and brake them to pieces ; then was the iron, the clay, 
the brass, the silver and the gold broken to pieces together, 
and became like the chaff of the summer threshing tioors, 
and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for 
them; and the stone that smote the image became a great 
mountain (kingdom) and tilled the whole earth.” “ I saw in 
my night vision, and behold ! one like the Son of Man came 
with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, 
and they brought him near before him, and there was given 
unto him dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all people, 
nations and languages should serve him ; his dominion is an 
everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his 
kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. I beheld, and 
the same horn made war with the saints and prevailed against 
them, until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was 
given to the people of the saints of the Most High, and the 
time came that the saints possessed the kingdom; and the 
kingdom, and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom 
under the whole heaven (and therefore of this world), shall be 
given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose 
kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall 
serve and obey him. Here the kingdoms of this world 
become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he 
shall reign forever and ever.” The events which now suc¬ 
ceed under the sounding of the trumpet are, the day of wrath, 
the day of judgment, of rewards and punishments, closing up 
with this awful scene : “ And there were lightnings and tliun- 
derings and an earthquake and great hail.” As there seems 
nothing in the scriptures, of which this great hail storm is a 
figure, and as it is always mentioned in connection with this 
37 


290 


The Philosophy of 


last grand scene, it is but reasonable to suppose it to be literal, 
and which would naturally result from the extremes of tem¬ 
perature produced by the dissolution of the heavens and 
their passing away with a great noise, great hail mingling 
with tire producing the mighty thunderings here described. 
Let us introduce a few of the passages in regard to this hail, 
in addition to the one already quoted, in order to show the 
connection: “ And the angel took the censer and tilled it with 
tire of the altar and cast it into the earth (setting it on tire) ; 
and there were voices and thunderings and lightnings and an 
earthquake ; and the seventh angel poured out his vial into 
the air, and there came a great voice out of the temple of 
heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done; and there were 
voices and thunders and lightnings, and there was a great 
earthquake, such as was not since men were upon earth, so 
mighty an earthquake and so great; and every island fled 
away, and the mountains were not found, and there fell upon 
men great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of 
a talent; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of 
the hail , for the plague thereof was exceeding great.” 

In reference to this shaking of the earth, Paul, writing to 
the Hebrews, says: “Whose voice (God’s) then shook the 
earth, but now he hath promised, saying, yet once more, I 
shake not the earth only, but also heaven ; and this word, yet 
once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are 
shaken as of things that are made, that those things which 
cannot be shaken may remain.” Now, he tells us what those 
things are which are to remain. “ Wherefore we receiving a 
Kingdom which cannot be removed, let us have grace, whereby 
we may serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear, 
for our God is a consuming fire.” Peter speaks of this great 
day of mighty thunderings thus : ‘ ‘ But the day of the Lord 
will so come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens 
shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall 
melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are 
therein shall be burned up, seeing then that all these things 
shall be dissolved, what manner of persons aught ye to be in 


God and the World . 


291 

all holy conversation and godliness. Looking for and hast¬ 
ening nnto the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens 
being on tire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt 
with fervent heat, nevertheless we, according to his promise, 
look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth right¬ 
eousness. ” This is the kingdom which cannot be removed. 
Isa. xxviii, 17: “ Judgment also will I lay to the line, and 
righteousness to the plummet, and the hail shall sweep away 
the refuge of lies.” Ez. xiii, 10, 11: “ Because even because 
they have seduced my people saying peace and there is no 
peace, and one built up a wall and, lo, others daubed it with 
untempered mortar, say unto them that daub it, that it shall 
fall, there shall be an overflowing shower, and ye, 0 great 
hail stones , shall fall , and a stormy wind shall rend it. Thus 
saith the Lord God there shall be an overflowing shower in 
mine anger and great hail stones in my fury to consume it.” 
xxxviii, 22: “I will plead against gog (this is the same 
event as in the twentieth of Revelation, meaning the wicked 
nations gathered together to the great battle of Armageddon, 
called gog and magog, upon whom God rains fire and brim¬ 
stone from heaven) with pestilence and blood, and I will rain 
upon him, and upon his bands, and upon his many people, 
with him an overflowing rain and great hail stones, fire and 
brimstone.” We might continue the quotations descriptive 
of this last grand event, which occupies no small portion of 
the sacred scriptures, but these must suffice. Here we have 
the closing scene of the seventh trumpet and of the world’s 
history, and thus mirrored that the wicked may read their 
destiny if such they remain. 


292 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER XXXII. 

OPENING OF THE SEVEN SEALS. 

As introductory to this subject, we will present some pas 
sages from the prophets who saw the events here finally 
revealed to John : Isa. vi, 1-8, u In the year that king Uzziali 
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and 
lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the 
seraphim ; each one had six wings ; with twain he covered his 
face, with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did 
fly, and one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is 
the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.” Ez. 
1, “As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face 
of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side, and they 
four had the face of an ox on the left side ; they four also had 
the face of an eagle. Thus were their faces, and their wings 
were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined 
one to another, and two covered their bodies. 10, 5, 14. 
“And the sound of the cherubim’s (Isa. calls them seraphim) 
wings were heard even to the outer court, as the voice of the 
Almighty (Jod when he speaketh. And it came to pass that 
when he had commanded the man clothed with linen, saying, 
Take fire from between the wheels, from between the cherub- 
ims, then he went in and stood before the wheels, and one 
cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubim 
and took fire thereof, and put it into the hands of him that was 
clothed with linen, who took it and went out. And there 
appeared in the cherubim the form of a man’s hand under 
their wings, and when I looked, behold the four wheels by the 
cherubim, one wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by 
another cherub, and the appearance of the wheels was as the 
color of a beryl stone, and every one had four faces ; the first 
was a cherub, the second was the face of a man, the third as a 


God and the World. 


293 


lion, and the fourth as a flying eagle.” Zach. i, 5. “And I 
turned and lifted up mine eyes, and behold, there came four 
chariots out from between two mountains, and the mountains 
were of brass. In the first chariot were red horses, and in the 
second black horses, in the third white horses and in the 
fourth grazzled (pale) horses. Then I answered and said unto 
the angel that talked with me, What are these, my Lord \ and 
he said unto me, These are the four spirits of the heavens 
which go forth from standing before the Lord of the whole 
earth.” The prophecy of the events from which these brief 
quotations are made occupies more than a score of chapters, 
and our readers will at once discover the impossibility of 
deciphering their meaning were we not furnished with the key 
contained in the book of Revelation, and yet every one can 
just as clearly see that this symbolization of the prophets 
signifies the same things as those shown to the revelator. 
We quote the introduction to the opening of the seals, so that 
the whole subject may be better understood : Rev. 4th, “After 
this I looked, and behold, a door was open in the heaven, and 
the first voice which I heard was as it were a trumpet talking 
with me, which said, Come up hither and I will show thee 
things which must be hereafter, and immediately I was in the 
spirit, and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on 
the throne, and he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and 
a sardine stone, and there was a rainbow around about the 
throne, in sight like unto an emerald, and round about the 
throne were four and twenty seats, and upon the seats I 
saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment, 
and they had on their heads crowns of gold, and out of the 
throne proceeded lightnings and thundering and voices, and 
there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, 
which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne was 
there a sea of glass like unto crystal, and in the midst of the 
throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts (called 
by the prophets seraphim and cherubim) full of eyes before 
and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the 
second like a calf, and the third had the face of a man, and 


294 


The Philosophy of 


tlie fourth was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had 
each of them six wings about him, and they were full of eyes 
within, and they rest not day nor night, saying, Holy, holy, 
holy, Lord God Almighty which was and which is, and is to 
come. And when those beasts gave thanks to him that sat 
on the throne, who liveth forever and ever, the four and 
twenty elders fell down before him that sat on the throne and 
worshiped him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their 
crowns before the throne, saying, thou art worthy, O Lord, to 
receive glory, honor and power, for thou hast created all 
things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. And 
I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book 
written within and on the book side, and sealed with seven 
seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud 
voice, who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seven 
seals thereof ? And no man in heaven nor on earth, neither 
under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look 
thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found 
worthy to open and read the book, neither to look thereon, 
and one of the elders saith unto me, weep not; behold, the 
lion of the tribe of Juda, the root of David; hath prevailed to 
open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I 
beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and the four beasts, 
and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been 
slain, having seven horns (the seven horns symbolize Christ’s 
power in church) and seven eyes (his continual watchfulness 
over her interests) which are the seven spirits of God sent forth 
into all the earth, and he came and took the book out of the 
right hand of him that sat on the throne, and when he had 
taken the book the four beasts and the four and twenty elders 
fell down before the lamb, having every one of them harps 
and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the 
saints. And they sung a new song, saying, thou art worthy 
to take the book, and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast 
slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every 
kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made 
us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the 


God and the World. 


295 


earth. And I beheld and heard the voice of many angels 
round about the throne, and the four beasts and the elders, 
and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand 
and thousands of thousands, saying, with a loud voice, worthy 
is the lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and 
wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. 
And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth, and 
such as are in the sea, heard I saying blessing, honor, glory 
and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto 
the lamb forever and ever, and the four beasts said amen, and 
the four and twenty elders fell down and worshiped him that 
liveth forever and ever. And when the lamb had opened one 
of the seals I heard, as it were, the voice of thunder, one of the 
four beasts, saying, come and see, and I saw, and behold, a 
white horse, and he that sat on him had a bow, and a crown 
was given unto him 3 and he went forth conquering and to 
conquer.” It will be observed that under the opening of 
each of the four first of the seals there appears one of the four 
beasts called by Isaiah “ seraphim,” and by Ez. “ cheru¬ 
bim,” and also one of the four horses spoken of by Zachariah. 

The peculiar characteristics of these seraphims and horses 
symbolize the four first periods of the church, commencing 
with the day of Pentecost. The first seraph, who invites 
the world to behold, was like a lion, a most beautiful emblem, 
to represent the church in the apostolic age, with its indom¬ 
itable courage and intrepidity overcoming every obstacle, and 
triumphantly breaking down every barrier in the way of the 
spread of the gospel. This figure is strengthened by the asso¬ 
ciation with the lion of the white horse , the emblem of purity, 
and he that sat upon him had a bow in his hand (emblem of 
power), and a crown upon his head (emblem of victory). 
Thus mounted and arrayed the church went forth conquering 
and to conquer. Any words of man would only serve to mar 
the emblematical splendor and force of this glorious imagery, 
which exhibits God’s manner of writing history. The prog¬ 
ress of the gospel in this age is shown by the triumphant 
exclamation of Paul: “ Have they not all heard (the heathen) ? 


296 


The Philosophy of 


yea, verily, their sound went unto all the earth, and their 
words unto the ends of the world. They went everywhere 
preaching the glad tidings of the kingdom of God.” Thus 
we are presented, by this forcible and beautiful symbolization, 
the rapid and universal spread of the gospel in the apostolic 
age, far exceeding that of any of the succeeding periods dur¬ 
ing the gospel dispensation. Her doctrines w&re just as they 
came from the mouth of Jesus, simple and uncorrupted, with 
almost a perfect absence of ritualism. There were no sects 
and no lords over God’s heritage. “Filled with the Holy 
Ghost, they had the courage of the lion. Having preserved 
their purity of doctrine, spirit and practice, the white horse 
was their symbol. Mounted on him, with her bow of strength 
and crown of victory, the heroic church went forth, and in 
about fifty years filled the world with the doctrines of the 
cross.” 


i 



God and the World. 


297 


CHAPTER XXXIII. 

f OPENING OF THE SECOND SEAL. 

“And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the 
second beast say, Come and see; and the second beast was 
like a calf, and there went out another horse that was red, and 
power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the 
earth, and that they should kill one another, and there was 
given unto him a great sword.” The red horse is a symbol of 
blood, and the beast, a calf, is emblematical of the church 
being led forth to the slaughter, having its fulfillment in the 
“ten persecutions,” inflicted upon Christians by the Pagan 
kings of Rome, commencing with the Emperor Hero, which 
we have already considered in detail. It was the red dragon 
wielding the great sword, fearful armorial, for the infant 
church, which, up to this time, had enjoyed freedom of 
religious opinion, but now peace was taken from the earth, 
and the inauguration of the dreadful carnage of blood, “ kill¬ 
ing one another,” fairly introduced. 

“And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third 
beast say, Come and see ; and the third beast had the face as 
a man. And I beheld and lo, a black horse ; and he that sat on 
him had a pair of balances in his hand, and I heard a voice in 
the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a 
penny and three measures of barley for a penny, and see thou 
hurt not the oil and the wine.” This is the symbolization of 
the church from the conversion of Constantine. He is the 
beast with the face of a man (“having men’s persons in admi¬ 
ration because of advantage”—Paul) mounted on the black 
horse (symbol of corruption), issuing his decrees to the Pagan 
hierarchy, to put up her sword and wield it no more against 
the Christian church—“see thou hurt not the oil and the 
wine” —and establishing commercial relations among all his 
38 


298 


The Philosophy of 


sujbjects, and especially expunging all proscriptive enactments 
against Christians, who had been driven to such extremities 
that they could not buy the common necessities of life from 
the Pagans, but now these were free and cheap. “A measure 
of wheat for a penny, and two measures of barley for a 
penny.” ' The horse, however, is black, indicative of the cor¬ 
ruptions now introduced into the church, giving birth to the 
“man of sin.” The pair of balances denotes Constantine’s 
weighing and compromising between the three systems of 
religion, now warring against each other in the empire, Pagan¬ 
ism, Judaism and Christianity, so as to make one out of them 
all, and, when made, it was the “ abomination of desolation” 
spoken of by Daniel, the prophet, the great mystic Babylon 
of the Christian dispensation. 

We have already referred to the great change produced by 
this event in the church, but that we may see conclusively, by 
the corresponding history of this symbolization, that the Cath¬ 
olic church was never Christian, but from its incipiency the 
extremest opposite, the great anti-christ of scripture, see the 
historic picture, page 276. 

Here we have the true picture of the foundation of the 
Roman Catholic church, and who is so blind as not to see that 
its doctrine, spirit and practice are in the widest contrast to 
those of that church founded by Jesus and the apostles, and 
how appropriately symbolized by the “ Mack horse.” “ And 
when he had opened the fourth seal I heard the voice of the 
fourth beast say, Come and see ; and the fourth beast was like 
a flying eagle ; and I looked and behold a pale horse, and his 
name that sat on him was death, and hell followed with him ; 
and power was given him over the fourth part of the earth, to 
kill with the sword and with hunger and with death and with 
beasts of the earth.” Condensed into these few striking sym¬ 
bols, we have the dreadful imagery of the Papal power and 
its work. Behold the picture : The horse is pale and death 
is his rider. Hell and the grave follow in his track, hell to 
receive the rider and the grave the millions of victims of his 
cruelty, slain for no other reason than that of using the God- 


God and the World. 


299 

given liberty of conscience, faith and speech. The true and 
faithful Christians, who, of course, constituted the true and 
only church, were soon awakened to discover the delusion of 
the pretension that this man-made establishment of Constan¬ 
tine was the church founded by Jesus and the apostles, and 
as they saw they proclaimed, and, as might have been 
expected, bitter resentment and persecution followed the 
exposure, and its only alternative was the use of the wings 
of the eagle, her symbol at this age, and hence her flight into 
the seclusion of the dark ages. This is the same figure, only 
more extended, given in the twelfth of Rev. : “And to the 
woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she. might 
fly into the wilderness, into her place where she is nourished 
for a time, times and a half time, from the face of the ser¬ 
pent. ’ ’ This seal covers the national church during the long 
night of the “dark ages,” which, instead of being the Chris¬ 
tian church, outstripped hell itself in its work of d6ath. It 
has had no power at all equaling it in atrocious wickedness, 
and indeed, if it were not so, God has overdrawn the symboli¬ 
zation under this seal of its iniquity. 


300 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER XXXIV. 

THE OPENING OF THE FIFTH SEAL. 

“And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the 
altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, 
and for the testimony which they held; and they cried with a 
loud voice, saying, How long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost 
thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell 
on the earth ? And it w’as said unto them that they should 
rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and 
their brethren that should be killed as they were, should be 
fulfilled.” Here are the victims, martyred because of their 
testimony against the corruption and pretension, that this sys¬ 
tem made by Constantine was the Christian church. The 
blood of her wrath crieth unto God from the ground, which 
had opened her mouth and drank up the sacred streams, and 
the cry is pacified by the response that they should rest yet 
only for a short space, before the judgment of great Babylon 
shall come, in whose skirts would be found the blood of 
all the martyred dead that had been slain upon earth. We 
have considered this cry in another place, and therefore need 
not repeat it here. See page 236. 

“And when he had opened the sixth seal, I beheld, and lo, 
there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as 
sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the 
stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her 
untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the 
heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, and 
every mountain and island were moved out of their places, 
and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich 
men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every 
bond man, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and 
rocks of the mountains, and said to the rocks and mountains, 


God and the World. 


301 

fall on ns, and hide ns from the face of him that sitteth on the 
throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of 
his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand ?” 

This phenomena of the darkening of the snn and moon and 
falling of the stars, are the signs which Jesns gave the dis¬ 
ciples which wonld precede the great event of his coming 
again, and are also mentioned elsewhere in connection with 
the descriptions and predictions of the last day. Joel ii, 10, 
31, and iii, 15 : “ The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and 
the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also shall 
roar out of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem (new 
Jerusalem yet in the air), and the heavens and the earth shall 
shake.” Matt. • 24th : “Immediately after the tribulation of 
those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not 
give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the 
powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and then shall they see 
the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power 
and great glory, and then shall all the tribes of the earth 
mourn.” We do not think this phenomena refers to the 
literal sun, moon and stars, but are only used as figures to 
teach the truth, as elsewhere established by the use of the 
same symbols, as in the 12th of Revelation, that the world and 
church would be in great darkness in regard to the approach 
of this event, until it bursts with lightning suddenness on an 
unprepared world, when the mourning described under this 
seal will be heard. It may be said of those who are star¬ 
gazers, looking into the heavens for the display of wonderful 
freaks of nature and meteoric phenomena, as ominous of the 
approaching dissolution of all things, as it was of the Jews, 
who expected great signs, portending the first advent of 
Christ: “A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a 
sign, but no sign shall be given to it but the sign of Jonas, the 
prophet,” and which was not a sign of his coming, but of his 
resurrection from the dead. 

Nothing can be more clearly taught in the scriptures than 
that the wicked world will be in total darkness in regard to the 
termination of its history, and also to an alarming extent will 


302 


The Philosophy of 


this be the condition of the nominal church, including the 
ministry, and indeed if this is the idea conveyed by these 
figures, is it not significantly the condition of the world and 
church at the present day, and so far as this sign is concerned 
the next great event of the world may be its end. In confirm¬ 
ation of the correctness of this view we present the picture as 
drawn by Jesus, and if any are disposed to controvert it, their 
contest is not with the writer of this book, but with the great 
teacher himself. Luke xxi, 34, 35: “Take heed to your¬ 
selves, lest at any time your hearts be over-charged with 
surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that 
day come upon you unawares, for as a snare shall it come on 
all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.” Also 
Matt, xxiv: “ But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the 
coming of the Son of Man be, for as in the days that were 
before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and 
given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 
and Imew not until the flood came and took them all away. 
So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” Indeed, 
whenever this subject is agitated as being possible in our day, 
the first objection heard is that no man can know any thing 
about it, and which generally closes the debate, and which, 
of course, leaves all involved in profound darkness, just as 
the wicked world and formal professors would like to have 
it, and therefore, Christ, seeing this picture, draws it still in 
mercy and in advance for the benefit of such, so that they 
might take heed to themselves that that day might not over¬ 
take them as a thief in the night, as the flood overtook the 
antedeluvians. Again he says: “Nevertheless, when the Son 
of Man cometh shall he find faith on the earth,” implying 
that there will be very little. These scriptures are too clear 
to require comment, and furnish the world with the true 
picture of the condition in which it will be found when the 
master comes, and from which is it not evident that there will 
be but very little light or knowledge in regard to the consum¬ 
mation of all things and indeed not only no disposition to 
know, but a positive aversion to hear any thing said upon the 


God and the World. 


303 


subject. So many times has the calculation of the end of the 
world been made and failed, that it seems, in the nature of 
things, impossible that any amount of evidence proving the 
end of the prophetic periods, by whomsoever made, would 
produce any other effect than simply to provoke a smile of 
derision, and it is perfectly evident that the great mass would 
not have interest enough to examine the arguments in its 
defense. The world will still follow its various avocations, 
just as did the antedeluvians until the very day of its doom, 
and nothing but the sound of the awful “trump of God” 
will serve to awake her to the realization of her fate, while 
thus confounded, the seventh seal opens and gives us the 
revelation before it come to pass. 

“And when he had opened the seventh seal there was 
silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.” This is 
succeeded by the universal wailing, in hopeless despair, of the 
inhabitants of the world, brought to view as the closing scene 
of the sixth seal, when it seems all classes of men will be 
heard calling for the rocks and mountains, as they are thrown 
from their foundations by the last great convulsion of the 
world, to fall on them and to hide them from the awful face 
of him that sitteth on the throne, but all is now in vain. They 
refused to heed the words of Jesus and prepare, and now they 
must meet the inexorable judge, for “lo, he cometh out of his 
place to punish the inhabitants of the earth.” He had given 
chains of events, significant of his first advent, but the world, 
and even the church, did not take heed to them, and so “they 
perished, because they knew not the time of their visitation,” 
by the rejection of the great Messiah ; and more significant 
and multiplied were the events of the world and church, given 
to warn the world of His second coming, but they rejected the 
light, they loved darkness, because their deeds were evil; 
now behold the result, all are confounded, amid awful silence, 
in anticipation of “wrath to come.” 


304 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER XXXV. 

THE SEVEN ANGELS TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 

“ John to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace be 
unto you, and peace from him which is and which was and 
which is to come, and from the seven spirits which are befoie 
the throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, 
and the first begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings 
of the earth. I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day and heard 
behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha 
and Omega, the first and the last; and what thou see’ st write 
in a book, and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia, 
unto Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadel¬ 
phia and Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice of him 
that spake with me, and being turned I saw seven golden 
candlesticks ; and in their midst one like unto the Son of Man, 
clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the 
pax>s with a golden girdle ; his head and his hairs were white 
like wool, as white as snow, and his feet like unto fine brass, 
as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of 
many waters ; and he had in his right hand seven stars, and 
out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his 
countenance was as the sun shining in his strength. And 
when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead, and he laid his right 
hand upon me, saying, Fear not, I am the first and the last, 
I am he that liveth and was dead ; and behold, I am alive for 
ever more, amen ; and have the keys of hell and death. Write 
the things which thou hast seen and the things which shall be 
hereafter. The mystery’ of the seven stars which thou sawest 
in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The 
seven stars are the seven angels of the seven churches, and 
the seven candle-sticks are the seven churches.” 


God and the World. 


305 


The prophecy of which this is the revelation is recorded in 
Zech., thns: “Hear, now, O Joshua, the high priest, and 
thy fellows that stand before thee, for they are men to be 
wondered at, for behold I will bring forth my servant, the 
branch ; for behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua, 
upon one stone shall be seven eyes; behold, I will engrave 
the engraving thereof, saith the Lord of Hosts, and I will 
remove the iniquity of that land in one day. In that day 
saith the Lord of Hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbor 
under the vine and under the fig tree. And the angel came 
again and waked me out of sleep, and said, What see’ st thou ? 
and I said, A candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the 
top of it, and seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the 
seven lamps, and two olive trees by it, upon either side 
thereof one. So I spake to the angel, saying, What are these, 
my lord? and the angel answered me, saying, This is the 
word of the Lord unto Zerubabbel (type of Christ), saying, not 
by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of 
Hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain ? before Zerubab¬ 
bel thou shall become a plain ; and he shall bring forth the 
head stone thereof with shoutings, crying grace, grace unto 
it. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 
The hands of Zerubabbel hath laid the foundations of this 
house, his hands shall also finish it, and thou shalt know that 
the Lord of Hosts hath sent me unto you, for who hath 
despised the day of small things ? for they shall rejoice, and 
they shall see the plummet in the hands of Zerubabbel, with 
those seven ; they are the eyes of the Lord, which run through 
the whole earth. Then answered I, and said, What are these 
two olive trees upon the sides of the candlestick, and wliat 
are these two olive branches, which, through the golden pipes, 
empty out of themselves oil into the golden candlesticks ? and 
he said, these are the two anointed ones that stand by the 
Lord of the whole earth.” 

From this prophecy and its revelation, as introductory to 
the messages sent to the seven churches, we are taught that 
the seven stars are symbols of the seven angels, or messages 
39 


306 


The Philosophy of 


to the seven churches. That the seven golden candlesticks 
are the seven churches. That Jesus walking in their midst 
symbolizes his spiritual presence during the gospel age. 
“Lo, I am with you always even to the end of the world.” 
We understand that these seven churches were selected from 
among those of Asia, because they were in such circumstances 
as would most appropriately map out the seven prominent 
stages through which the church was to pass from the com¬ 
mencement of the gospel dispensation to the end of the world. 
“ Upon one stone (Christ) shall be seven eyes, for they are the 
eyes of the Lord that run through the whole earth” this 
represents Christ as the “light of the world,” shining through 
the church, which is itself, “as a city set upon a hill that can¬ 
not be hid; the light of the world,” and built upon the founda¬ 
tion of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being 
the chief corner stone and cannot be moved. Upon one stone 
shall be seven eyes. “He is also symbolized by Zerubabbel 
whose hand laid the foundation of Ezra’s temple, so Christ 
laid the foundation of his spiritual temple and his hands shall 
finish it.” He has appointed no Yicar or earthly Pontiff or 
Potentate as his representative, but his own hand shall also 
finish it. The idea is clearly taught here that it is through 
the church in all eyes that Christ looks at the world, nations 
and individuals, estimating their value, and his interest in 
them according to the relations sustained to his church. It is 
from this consideration that those nations only are noticed in 
the scriptures whose history has been intimately connected 
with the church. The declaration, “He walketh in the midst 
of the seven golden candlesticks,” is not to be considered 
territorially having an exclusive application to the seven 
churches of Asia, existing in the days of the revelator, but 
chronologically in the midst of the church of all ages. “ Lo, 
I am with you always even to the end of the world,” expresses 
the same idea. Hence, also, if any Pope of Home treads 
within these hallowed precincts he usurps the place of God, 
and the seat which belongs to Him, “who is the only Poten¬ 
tate, the Lord of lords and King of kings.” 


God and the World . 


307 


With these observations we are prepared to examine what 
the seven angels say to the seven churches. It is clear, from 
this symbolization, that there has been, or are to be, but seven 
marked changes though which the church has passed, or is 
to pass, during the gospel dispensation, and if we find that we 
have already passed six of these, and are in the seventh, are 
we not forced to the conclusion that there is to be no impor¬ 
tant change to take place in the church in the future, such as 
the general conversion of men, or any thing approximating it, 
till the end of the world ? “ Unto the angel of the church of 

Ephesus write: these things saith he that holdeth the seven 
stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven 
golden candlesticks. I know thy works and thy labor and 
thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which say 
they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars, and 
for my name sake hast labored and hast not fainted. Never¬ 
theless I have a few things against thee, because thou hast left 
thy first love ; remember, therefore, from whence thou art 
fallen, and repent and do the first works, or else I will come 
unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his 
place except thou repent; but this thou hast, that thou hatest 
the deeds of the Nicholaitans, which I also hate. He that 
hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the 
churches; to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree 
of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” 

We are here presented with the history of the church from 
the days of its formation, consummated on the day of Pente¬ 
cost, till the reign of the Emperor Nero, A. D. 64, compre¬ 
hending the labors and success of the apostolic church, which 
had now reached the last' days of its purity and power, in 
consequence of which it was threatened with the removal of 
its candlestick, and which afterward took place, and we may 
remark that what was true of this was also of every succeed¬ 
ing stage of the church, none of which ever repented of its 
evil and reformed, rendering the removal of its candlestick, 
on the part of God, always a necessity. The change which 
followed marks another epoch in the march of the church 


308 


The Philosophy of 


down the ages. Tertullian says: “The Hicohlaitans denied 
the supreme divinity of Christ, and also that He had any 
proper humanity, asserted that His death on the cross was 
only in appearance. They also denied the atonement by the 
blood of Christ.” Against these John wrote his epistles, and 
here Christ mentions them with utter abhorrence. 

“Unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write these 
things, saith the first and the last, which was dead and is 
alive; I know thy works and thy tribulation and poverty 
(but thou art rich),,and I know the blasphemy of them that 
say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of 
Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer; 
behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye 
may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days ; be thou 
faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life. He 
that hath ears to hear let him hear what the spirit saith unto 
the churches ; he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the 
second death.” We understand the declaration, “thou shalt 
have tribulation ten days,” to denote the ten persecutions 
through which the church passed, commencing with the 
Emperor Hero, and mentioned as such by all church histo¬ 
rians. This inhuman monster set fire to the city of Home, 
that he might be gratified at beholding the conflagration. The 
act called down upon him such odium, and fearing the conse¬ 
quences, he charged it upon the Christians, and inflicted upon 
them the most dreadful sufferings. In this persecution Paul 
and Peter were martyred. The series were continued by the 
Pagan emperors until the days of Constantine. This was the 
work of the “great red dragon,” before being bound by Pap¬ 
acy, called the devil and Satan. It is also notorious that the 
Jews, who were very rich and influential at this period, joined 
the Pagans in this work of blood, and by thus identifying 
themselves with the old serpent, they are here classified as 
belonging to the synagogue of Satan. “I know the blas¬ 
phemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are 
the synagogue of Satan.” See the letter of Pliny to the 
Emperor Trajan, and its answer, which gives a good idea of 


God and the World . 


309 


the persecution of this period. The church of Smyrna ends 
with the year 324 A. D., when Constantine published his 
laws and edicts, by which the ancient religion of the Romans 
was abolished, and, nominally, Christianity established'as 
that of the empire. 

u And unto the angel of the church of Pergamos write: 
These things saith he that hath the sharp sword with two 
edges, I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even where 
Satan’s seat is (Papacy was now enthroned), and thou holdest 
fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those 
days wherein Antipas was my fellow martyr, who was slain 
among you, where Satan dwelleth. I have a few things 
against thee because thou hast there them that hold the doc¬ 
trine of Balaam who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block 
before the children of Israel, and to eat things sacrificed unto 
idols and to commit fornication, so hast thou there them that 
hold the doctrine of the Mcolaitans, which thing I hate; 
repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly and will fight 
against them with the sword of my mouth. He that hath an 
ear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches. To 
him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, 
and I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name 
written which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it.” 
We have here the symbolization of the church from Constan¬ 
tine until the reformation. It dwelt where Satan’s seat was. 
The Papal hierarchy was now fully set up, and those who 
opposed’ its false pretensions, doctrines and practices, are here 
symbolized by Antipas who was Christ’s fellow martyr. 
Indeed it would be but a very slight change in the authog- 
raphy of this name, and which is the true idea, to make it 
state the fact that these martyrs were the victims of the Papal 
church, slain for their opposition to her corruption. Anti- 
papas instead of Antipas, the personification of those who fell 
by the power of Antichrist. It is the prerogative of Cod, and 
He has published it to the world that man must believe , and 
for which He has given sufficient evidence in His history of the 
world, given in advance, without calling nations and men by 


310 


The Philosophy of 


their proper names, which he might just as well have done as 
in the case, nationally, of Medea and Persia, and among men, 
Syrus, whom God called by name long before he was born. 
The sin of Balaam, who was hired by Balak to curse the chil¬ 
dren of Israel, and who desired to do it because “ he loved the 
wages of unrighteousness,” fitly represents the anathemas 
and eloquent cursing of the Papacy, pronounced upon all 
who oppose her corrupt doctrines and unholy practice. This 
great false prophet cursed and martyred all Protestants 
within her power, because she too loved the wages of unright¬ 
eousness. This church had also adopted the doctrines of the 
Nicolaitans, at least she tolerated those who did, which God 
hated. In fact, during the fourth and fifth centuries all sorts 
of extravagant and nonsensical notions respecting Christ were 
entertained. No opinion, however absurd, could be proposed 
but had its adherents. It will be observed that the reproof 
and threatening here was not against those who opposed these 
doctrines, and who had held fast Christ’s name and had not 
denied his faith, but against those who persecuted them. ‘ ‘ I 
will fight against them,” is the declaration of Christ. “ And 
unto the angel of the church of Thyatira write : these things 
saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of 
fire and his feet like fine brass. I know thy works and thy 
charity, and thy services, and thy faith, and thy patience, and 
the last to be more than the first. Notwithstanding I have a 
few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman 
Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to 
seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things 
sacrificed unto idols. I gave her space to repent of her forni¬ 
cation and she repented not; behold, I will cast her children 
into great tribulation except they repent of their deeds. I 
will kill her children with death, and all the churches 
shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins 
and the hearts. And I will give unto every one of yon 
according to your works. But unto you I say, and unto the 
rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which 
have not known the depth of Satan as they speak, I will lay 


God and the World. 


311 


upon you none other burden but that which ye have; hold 
fast till I come. And he that overcometh and keepeth my 
words unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, 
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron ; as the vessels of a 
potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I have received 
of my father ; and I will give unto him the morning star. He 
that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the 
churches.” 

Here is presented the contest of the reformers, Luther, Cal¬ 
vin, etc., with the Papists, and in the church of Thyatira are 
the exceptions thus alluded to. “But unto you I say, and to 
the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and 
which have not known the depths of Satan as they speak, 
I will put upon you none other burden.” It will be observed 
that this controversy is wholly about doctrines, just as it was 
with the reformers. Indeed, the spirit of Rome seemed to be 
almost wholly unmolested, and even the reformers brought so 
much of it out from the woman, who had corrupted the world, 
that they seemed to have no scruples in adopting retaliatory 
measures whenever they had it in their power to do so. As 
an example of this, Calvin had Michael Sejwerus, a Spanish 
physician, who had written against the doctrine of the trinity, 
apprehended, tried as a heretic, condemned and burnt alive, 
Oct. 27, 1553 — [Marsh’s Ecclesiastical History, page 321]. 
It should, however, be remembered that those reformers had 
but just emerged from the dark night of Papacy into the dim 
twilight of gospel day, whose common practice for centuries 
had been to murder men for their religious sentiments. It 
would be strange indeed, if, in those early days of the reform¬ 
ation, this Christless spirit of the mother of abominations and 
relentless revenge should not, to some extent, have character¬ 
ized her protesting children. It should also be remembered 
that Calvin, who in this instance carried out the spirit of the 
mother, had been a monk in the Romish church, and, there¬ 
fore, accustomed to the work of burning men for religious 
principles. 

The woman, Jezebel, is here introduced as a symbol of the 


312 


The Philosophy of 


seductive power of the “ mother of harlots.” In order that 
its force and applicability may be appreciated, it must be 
understood that Jezebel, who was the wife of Ahab, the king 
of Israel, had corrupted him and all the nation, and, by her 
artful, seductive influence, had led the whole nation away from 
the worship of the true God to that of Pagan idols. Elijah, 
the prophet, had put the priests of Baal to the test, and their 
gods could do nothing, but the God of Elijah, the prophet, 
answered by fire from heaven, and the charm of the priests 
and of Jezebel was broken, and Elijah caused four hundred of 
the priests of Baal to be put to death, who fed at Jezebel’s 
table. This was done in her absence, and, on being informed 
of it, swore exterminating vengeance against Elijah and all his 
followers. But she failed, and was thrown from a window, 
and the dogs feasted on her carcass. So was it with the 
woman who sat upon the scarlet colored beast, full of names 
of blasphemy, who, in her wrath, swore vengeance against the 
reformers, and, so fearful were they, that even the heroic 
Luther, after his triumph at Worms, was obliged to keep 
concealed for a whole year, like Elijah and his fellow-prophets, 
even after his triumph at Mount Carmel, fled from the wrath 
of Jezebel into the caves of the earth. This pretended proph¬ 
etess had not only corrupted and seduced the nation, leading 
them to follow Baal instead of God, but nearly all the true 
prophets of God had been killed by her directions, so that 
^ Elijah uttered this complaint to the Lord: “They have 
killed thy prophets and digged down thine altars, and I am 
left alone, and they seek my life also.” So was it with the 
great antitype of Jezebel, who exalted herself above all that 
is called God or that is worshiped, claiming to hold the 
prerogative of closing the gates of heaven against all but her 
own ignorant and deluded devotees. She arrogates to her¬ 
self to be the vicegerent of Christ; that she can absolve the 
wicked from their crimes, and thereby encourages them to cor¬ 
rupt the world by their drunkenness, blasphemy, and, indeed, 
the vast amount of all the prevailing crimes of the civilized 
nations are the deeds of Roman Catholics, and in death she 


God and the World. 


313 


gives them quick passports to the heavenly inheritance, and 
even if they die before being thus disenthralled, they may 
be prayed out of purgatory, and for a few dollars will be; 
such is her monstrous assumptions. But says God, “ I will 
kill her children with death,” and all the churches shall know 
that I am in the midst of them, and that eternal destinies are 
not left to the arbitration of an ignorant and corrupt priest¬ 
hood. 

40 


314 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER XXXVI.* 

THE ANGEL TO THE CHURCH OF SARDIS AND OF THE 
LAODICEANS. 

“ And unto the angel of the church of Sardis write these 
things, saith he that hath the seven spirits of God, and the 
seven stars; I know thy works, and thou hast a name that 
thop. livest and art dead; be watchful and strengthen the 
things which remain and are ready to die, for I have not 
found thy works perfect before God; remember, therefore, 
how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast and repent. 
If, therefore, thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a 
thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon 
thee. Thou hast a few names, even in Sardis, which have not 
defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, 
for they are worthy. He that overcometh the same shall be 
clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot his name out 
of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my 
Father and the holy angels. He that hath an ear let him hear 
what the spirit saith unto the churches.” 

We have here the picture of the Protestant church when 
John Wesley commenced his glorious work of awakening her 
from her Sardian death-sleep into spiritual life, whose suc¬ 
cess marked so prominent an epoch in the history of the gos¬ 
pel dispensation that its prophetic picture would be incom¬ 
plete were it omitted. It will be observed that down through 
all these periods of the church there are two distinct classes 
recognized, and also that the last class, addressed, of the pre¬ 
ceding church, forms that which follows, and,, therefore, the 
march of the last is that of the true church, while that left 
behind is involved in unrepentant corruption. Another 
important fact is, that none of these churches, as a body, ever 
reformed; but, like the march of nations, successively rose 


God and the World. 


315 


from a small beginning, and, as they increased in numbers, 
honors, riches and power, they increased in worldly minded¬ 
ness, luxury, pride and general corruption, so that in every 
case the candlestick was removed, or the shining of the light 
of G od went out, and was transferred to the few names who 
preserved themselves pure from the general corruption. It 
must also be borne in mind that these messages were 
addressed to each church, just as it had reached the most 
corrupt period of its history, and consequently when its 
power (not spiritual but political) would be the most appre¬ 
ciated by the world, and when those among them who were 
free from the charges brought against the church, as a body, 
in spirit, if not in form, separated themselves from the cor¬ 
rupt and culpable body, and they constituted the next 
church, in the progress of events. Hence, we see that those 
in Thyatira who had protested against the Satanic doctrines 
of Papacy, and had come out from her communion, finalty 
degenerated into the dead church of Sardis, and the few 
names who were not quite dead, but were ready to die, and 
would, unless strengthened into spiritual life, were princi¬ 
pally the Wesleys, and Whitfield, who at first made great 
efforts to reform the dead church of Sardis, but, failing in its 
accomplishment, were forced to the necessity of leaving the 
Episcopal establishment and organizing a church of spiritual 
life and power. It will be remembered that the fault found 
with the church of Sardis had no reference to her doctrine, as 
in the case of the preceding ones. These were good enough, 
but it was because of her spiritual death, and every one 
knows, who is at all acquainted with church history, that the 
chtirch of Sardis is a most perfect symbol of the church of 
England at the period under consideration, and, indeed, if we 
except a few Moravians of the reformed churches, all were 
spiritually dead. The nature of saving faith and conversion 
was no where taught or understood, and to be ignorant of 
these, experimentally, every man is dead. The church of 
England was perhaps more perfectly dead than the Calvin- 
istic or Lutheran churches, but the life they manifested con- 


316 


The Philosophy of 


sisted principally in disputations concerning the decrees and 
foreknowledge of God, partial election and reprobation, sacra¬ 
ments, church governments, ritualism, etc., but the nature of 
the new birth, or of a new heart, they understood no better 
than a dead man, and it is not to be expected that a man will 
be better than his theoretic faith, more commonly very much 
worse. The great object of these few names in Sardis was 
simply to reform the church in spirituality, but, as we said, 
finding this impossible, they were obliged to avail themselves 
of the intimation in the message to Sardis : “ Behold, I have 
set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.” They 
are too dead to receive this new resurrection power — the new 
wine must be put in new bottles — therefore, “go out quickly 
into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, 
that my house may be filled.” This great revival of vital 
godliness, which, in a very short time, spread over Great 
Britain and America and constituting the church which fol¬ 
lowed Sardis, is, therefore, thus addressed: “And unto the 
angel of the church in Philadelphia write, these things saith 
he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, 
he that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no 
man openeth, I know thy works; behold I have set before thee 
an open door, and no man can shut it, for thou hast a little 
strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my 
name, bbliold I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, 
who say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I 
will make them to come and worship before thy feet and to 
know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept the 
word of my patience, I will also keep thee from the hour of 
temptation which shall come upon all the world, to try them 
that dwell upon the earth. Behold I come quickly ; hold that 
fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that 
overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and 
he shall go no more out, and I will write upon him the name 
of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is 
new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my 
God; and I will write upon him my new name. He that 


God and the World. 317 

hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the 
churches.” 

Against this church there is no fault charged. There is, 
however, a severe trial to which she is to be subjected, com¬ 
ing from false professors which say they are Jews (Christians), 
but are of the synagogue of Satan. To this church there is 
no allusion made to doctrines; their theories were correct 
enough, so as to call for no criticism on the part of God, but 
it related to the danger of conformity to the world. The 
church, therefore, of brotherly love were tempted to this, but 
God keeps them, and, of course, they are willing to be kept, 
while the great mass fall by the power of the temptation, and 
who are then addressed as being the last condition of the 
church, and, therefore, the one in which it will be found when 
the gospel dispensation closes. “And unto the angel of the 
church of the Laodiceans write, these things saith the amen, 
the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of 
God ; I know thy works, that thou art neither hot nor cold, 
I would thou wert hot or cold, so then because thou art 
luke-warm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of 
my mouth, because thou sayest I am rich, and increased with 
goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou 
art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked. 
I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire (the pop¬ 
ularity of your profession calls out no trial) that thou mayest 
be rich, and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and 
that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint 
thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see. As many as 
I love I rebuke and chasten (as ye are not chastened by the 
world, because like it, therefore I do not love you); be zeal¬ 
ous, therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and 
knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will 
come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To 
him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, 
even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in 
his throne. He that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit 
saith unto the churches.” 


318 


The Philosophy of 


Without stopping here to make any observations upon this 
divine portraiture of the church at the close of the gospel dis¬ 
pensation we will first introduce a corresponding one, drawn 
by the great apostle of the Gentiles. Addressing Timothy, 
he says: “ This know also, that in the last days perilous 
times shall come (the hour of temptation). For men shall be 
lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blas¬ 
phemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without 
natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, 
fierce despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high- 
minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a 
form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, from such 
turn away, for of this sort are they which creep into houses 
and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with 
diverse lusts, ever learning, but never able to come to the 
knowledge of the truth. Now, as Jannes and Jambres with¬ 
stood Moses, so do these also resist the truth; men of corrupt 
minds, reprobate concerning the faith, but they shall proceed 
no further, for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as 
theirs also was.” 

The allusion here to the magicians of Egypt, who, when God 
sent Moses to work miracles in attestation of his divine mis¬ 
sion, imitated them so nearly that Pharaoh discredited it, and, 
under the deception, refused to let the children of Israel go, 
thus did they “resist the truth.” Those here also having a 
form of godliness only deceive themselves, and so resist the 
truth. The result of this resistance upon the king, in refusing 
to comply with God’s requisition, was the overthrow of him¬ 
self and all his hosts in the Red sea, and as the folly of these 
magicians was thus manifested, so will the folly of these mere 
formalists be when Jesus, the great antitype of Moses, comes 
to deliver his people from the bondage of corruption and to 
introduce them into the inheritance of the glorious “liberty 
of the children of God,” the rest of which old Canaan was the 
type. This is the closing scene of the world’s history, and 
takes place when the truth concerning it is to some extent 
being agitated, which the following scriptures show, as well 


God and the World. 


319 


as they corroborate the application of the Laodicean chnrch 
to this time. Matt, xxiv : “ Watch, therefore, for ye know 
not what hour your Lord doth come ; but know this, that if 
the good man of the house had known in what watch the 
thief would have come he would have watched, and would not 
have suffered his house to have been broken up ; therefore, be 
ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of 
Man cometh. Who, then, is that faithful and wise servant, 
whom his Lord has made ruler over his household, to give 
them meat in due season % Blessed is that servant, whom his 
Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Verily, I say 
unto you that he shall make him ruler over all his goods; 
but, and if that evil servant shall say in his heart (not audi¬ 
bly, but only wishing to have it so), my Lord delayeth his 
coming and shall begin to smite his fellow servants (who still 
preach his coming), and to eat and drink with the drunken 
(associate with such), the Lord of that servant shall come in 
a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is 
not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his 
portion with the hypocrites ; there shall be weeping and 
gnashing of teeth.” “Then (while this contest is going on) 
shall the kingdom (or coming of the kingdom) of heaven be 
likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps and went 
forth to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were wise and 
five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps 
(Bibles, ‘ thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto 
my path.’ The idea is, at this time people took their Bibles 
to see whether the bridegroom was coming, as some were con¬ 
tending), and took no oil with them (theory, though true, will 
not save without grace); but the wise took oil in their vessels 
with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried they all 
slumbered and slept; and at midnight there was a cry made, 
Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him. 
Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps, and the 
foolish said unto the wise, give us of your oil; but the wise 
answered, saying, not so, lest there be not enough for us and 
you, but go ye rather to them that sell and buy for your- 


320 


The Philosophy of 


selves ; and while they went to buy the bridegroom came, and 
they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and 
the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, 
saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us, but he answered and said, 
Yerily, I say unto you, I know you not; watch, therefore, for 
ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of 
Man cometh.” Here was the folly of the lukewarm profess¬ 
ors made manifest unto all men, and before an assembled 
world the exposure took place. Here the doom of the Laodi¬ 
cean church was realized. “I will spew thee out of my 
mouth.” If this is the picture of the church, only half 
saved, and because they had only the form of godliness, 
without the power; who were not absolutely cold, but had 
some warmth—“ lukewarm, neither cold nor hot.” What, 
we ask, will be the moral or Christian condition of the world, 
who are then found, not having even the form of godliness ? 
It does not become us to assume that this inspired picture of 
the last stage or condition of the Christian church is that of 
the present day. Of this every man must be his own judge. 
But let any one sit down and take this picture of Paul’s and 
select out each of the classes here designated from the nomi¬ 
nal church, we mean the Protestant, within the circle of his 
acquaintance, and then ask himself if an equal division, as 
the parable of the ten virgins presents it, would be more than 
realized. And it must be remembered that all of the ten vir¬ 
gins expected to be saved, and that they took an interest in 
the subject of. Christ’s return. For when the cry was made, 
“ Behold, the bridegroom cometh,” they immediately rose, 
trimmed their lamps and went out to meet him, but having no 
oil in their vessels, or grace in their hearts, their light became 
darkness, and hence their disappointment, and for the first 
time they realized the saying of Jesus, “Not every one that 
saitli unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of 
heaven, but he that doth the will of my Father which is in 
heaven.” “Many will say to me, in that day, Lord, Lord, 
have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast 
out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? 


God and the World. 


321 


And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart 
from me ye that work iniquity.’’ There was no question but 
that they had done all these wonderful things, but they were 
lukewarm — mere formalists — which is no substitute for the 
faith and love of God and His truth. Well would it be if the 
Laodicean church would listen to the counsel of Jesus, and 
buy gold of him tried in the fire, and eye salve, so that they 
might behold their true condition, as God sees it, and clothe 
themselves with the white raiment (which is the righteous¬ 
ness of the saints), repent of their lukewarmness and worldly- 
mindedness ere it be too late. 

41 


322 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER XXXVII. 

* THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES. 

Revelation 15 : “And I saw another sign in heaven, great 
and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; 
for in them is filled up the wrath of God. And the seven 
angels came out of the temple, having the seven last plagues, 
clothed in pure and fine linen, and having their breasts girded 
with golden girdles. And one of the four beasts gave unto 
the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, 
who liveth forever and ever. And the temple was filled with 
smoke from the glory of God, and from his power, and no 
man was able to enter into the temple till the seven plagues 
of the seven angels were fulfilled. ” 

In order to appreciate the instruction contained in the ful¬ 
fillment of the chain of events under this grand symbolization, 
we wish to direct attention to certain points, and first, that 
these vials contain all God’s wrath — the punishment of the 
wicked, the burning of the world, its purification and restora¬ 
tion from the curse — and when they are spent God’s contro¬ 
versy with the nations is finished. Again, that there are two 
judgments and sources of punishment inflicted upon Papal 
Rome: that she receives the contents of the first six of these 
plagues providentially, which prepares her for that condition 
in which she is to be found when the world ends. The six 
plagues emanate from Christian civilization and the resent¬ 
ment felt and executed by the Catholic kings of Europe, 
forced to act thus by the popular sentiment of the people, 
their subjects; the one pouring the light and blessedness of 
religious liberty upon Rome’s darkness and intolerance, and 
the other by demanding civil liberty at her hands, thus utterly 
stripping her of her previous riches and power. 

That the plagues under which Rome now suffers have their 


God and tee World. 


323 


source in the powerful influence of the Christian civilization 
of the age, and which has already resulted in her impoverish¬ 
ment and helplessness among the nations, is clearly taught 
by the source from whence it is declared the seven angels 
received the vials containing these last plagues, thus: “And 
one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels the seven 
golden vials full of the wrath of God” Under the opening 
of the four first of the seven seals we have seen that these four 
beasts, symbolizing the four great divisions of the religionists 
of the world, and whose history is there considered, Pagans, 
Jews, Papists and Christians (see page 277). In the arrange¬ 
ment of the symbols presenting the historic events through 
which these passed in the succession, we found that the 
fourth was the Christian, and as the last of these antagon¬ 
isms were not Jetvs or Pagans, but Papists and Christians, 
constituting the third and fourth divisions, and as the plagues 
came from one of the last two, and was poured upon the 
other, producing the poverty and suffering here described, 
and as it is the Papal and not the Christian division which 
thus suffers, it follows that it is the fourth beast, or seraphim, 
whence the plagues proceed, or, literally, it is the civil and 
religious liberty, enjoyed and defended by the Christian 
church, pouring its light and powerful influence upon the 
intolerant system of Romanism, which produces the suffer¬ 
ing these plagues describe. The first six of the plagues are 
poured out in quick succession, commencing with the history 
of Rome in the year 1848. Hence they are called “ the last 
plagues ” As we have already considered these events, 
brought out under other series of symbols, it is only neces¬ 
sary here to notice their correspondence, in order to see their 
force and application to the events we think they symbolize: 
“And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the 
seven angels, go your way and pour out the vials of the wrath 
of God upon earth. And the first went and poured out his 
vial upon the earth, and there fell a noisome and grievous sore 
upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon 
them which worshiped his image.” 


324 


The Philosophy of 


This vial fixes the chronology of the plagues, it being 
poured out on those who had the mark of the beast and that 
worshiped his image. This is evident from the fact that 
Napoleon the III made this image and gave it life, and also 
compelled those under his power to receive its mark or to 
worship the image, therefore, the first plague dates here. The 
noisome and grievous sore, which, from this vial, fell upon 
men, resulted from the curtailment of the liberties of the peo¬ 
ple while Napoleon was president of the French republic. 
“ And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea, and 
it became as the blood of a dead man, and every living soul 
died in the sea.” Under the administration of Napoleon the 
liberties of the people were destro} r ed by the most flagrant vio¬ 
lation of the constitution. Here the two witnesses were slain, 
“ every living soul died in the sea,” the nations (peoples) 
“became like the blood of a dead man.” The holy aspira¬ 
tions for civil and religious liberty stagnated, and ceased to 
flow in the national veins, as if smitten by death. “Ana the 
third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains 
of waters, and they became blood.” Here is the wide-spread 
revolutions of the larger and smaller kingdoms, demanding 
and fighting for constitutional liberty, embracing all the 
Catholic kingdoms of Europe at this period. “ And I heard 
the angel of the waters (the peoples) say, Thou art righteous, 
0 Lord, which art and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast 
judged thus, for they have shed the blood of saints and 
prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink, for they 
are worthy.” This was the result of the revolutionary action 
and reaction between the people and their princes, both.of 
whom had been guilty of the crime of martyring God’s saints, 
and therefore were they worthy of the suffering. “And the 
fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun, and power 
was given unto him to scorch men with fire, and men were 
scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, 
which hath power over these plagues, and they repented not 
to give him glory.” 

Here is Pope Pius the IX making desperate efforts to con- 


God and the World. 


325 


trol the liberal movements which he himself had set in 
motion. The difficulty he encountered was, that in confer¬ 
ring civil liberty upon his subjects, it was impossible 
not to give them religious liberty also ; in fact, the one 
carries with it the other. It is true, to a limited extent, that 
religious liberty may exist in a State where civil liberty is 
restrained, and, indeed, in the most absolute despotism, as in 
the case of the Roman empire in the first age of Christianity, 
but where the people of a State enjoy unrestrained civil lib¬ 
erty, religious follows as a natural consequence. Hence the 
Pope and his sympathizers were scorched with this powerful 
light and heat. He saw his duty and the necessity of its per¬ 
formance, the people demanding the fulfillment of his promise 
to grant them a constitution, and yet the impossibility of 
yielding without ruining Papacy. This “ sun,” representing 
the Christian civilization of the nineteenth century, pouring 
its divine and burning rays upon the dark citadel of the seat 
of the beast, they saw and felt the lesson was from God, but 
rather than yield to its dictates shut their eyes and still hug¬ 
ged their chains, and thus blasphemed the name of God, and 
refused to repent. See the letter of the Pope to his people, 
addressed to the Roman senate, in 1848, page 211. “And the 
fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast, and 
his kingdom was full of darkness, and they gnawed their 
tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because 
of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.” 

Here the bewilderment of the Papal government culmi¬ 
nates ; profound darkness reigns; all is confusion and dis¬ 
may. The Pope determines to resist the demands of the 
people to give them a constitution according to his repeated 
promises. His subjects, hearing of the fall of the French 
kingdom and flight of Louis Philippe, become more embold¬ 
ened in their demands. The more the Pope studies the 
nature of civil liberty, the more he sees its incompatibility 
with Papacy; its clear indication is that of a complete revo¬ 
lution and consequent overthrow of the civil power of the 
church, and, that being radically unchangeable, infallible , as 


326 


The Philosophy of 


it is claimed to be, to submit to it is, therefore, impossible. 
He has sworn to hand down the Popedom to his successors as 
he received it. But this would materially impair it, and, 
therefore, he must desist or foreswear himself. Now gnaw¬ 
ing his tongue in pain and in the utmost despair, disguises 
himself in the habiliments of a servant and takes flight by 
night from the Vatican, in which, for weeks, he had been liter¬ 
ally a prisoner, to Naples, and his cabinet with him, or those 
of them who did not fall by the hand of an outraged popu¬ 
lace, among whom was the Pope’s prime minister. The 
people thus left, established a republic, with Mazina as pro¬ 
visional President. 

“And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great 
river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up that the 
way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw 
three unclean spirits, like frogs, come out of the mouth of the 
dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth 
of the false prophet, for they are the spirits of devils work¬ 
ing miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and 
of the whole world to gather them to the battle of the great 
day of God Almighty; and he gathered them together into a 
place called, in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon. Behold, I 
come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his 
garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame.” 

It is not necessary to comment on the events of the sixth 
angel, as it has already been done in connection with the sub¬ 
ject of the binding of the great dragon (see page 229), and 
more especially of his being loosed out of his prison house at 
the expiration of the thousand years, when he goes forth, as 
here, to gather the nations, and, when thus gathered, God 
closes the scene by raining fire and brimstone down out of 
heaven upon them, just as their doom is brought to view in 
the pouring out of the seventh vial, which we here introduce 
for consideration: “And the seventh angel poured out his vial 
into the air, and there came a great voice out of the temple of 
heaven from the throne saying, It is done. And there were 
voices and thunders and lightnings, and there was a great 


God and the World. 


327 


earthquake, such as was not since men were upon earth, so 
mighty an earthquake and so great, and the great city was 
divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and 
great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give unto 
her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath; and 
every island fled away, and the mountains were not found, 
and there fell upon men great hail out of heaven, every stone 
about the weight of a talent; and men blasphemed God 
because of the plague of the hail, for the plague thereof was 
exceeding great.” 

Thus we are brought again down to the great consummation 
of all things, to which lead all the other chains of events 
under the sublime symbolic representation—the angels to 
the seven churches, the opening of the seven seals, the sound¬ 
ing of the seven trumpets and the pouring out of the seven 
last plagues. 

As might naturally be supposed the last plague, as well as 
the last or seventh of each of these chains of symbols, ushers 
in the last great day, when not only great Babylon, but all 
others who are then found sinners against God and at war 
with his government, receive their long predicted doom. This 
is emphatically God’s judgment against great Babylon, and 
is the contents of the seventh vial or last plague. The first 
six through which she had passed, as we have seen, origi¬ 
nated in the Christian civilization of the world, combined with 
the powerful example of the Protestant nations which had 
providentially produced the downfall of the old Papal power, 
and which had held temporal dominion for twelve hundred 
and sixty years, being now simply an innage of what existed 
of the rich and universal power of the great Papal empire, 
before whom no nation was able to stand, but now, at 
whose downfall, is heard the wailings and lamentations of its 
200,000,000 sympathizers, and rejoicing of all true friends 
of Christianity and freedom. These voices are thus inter¬ 
mingled. “And after these things I saw another angel 
come down from heaven, having great power, and the earth 
was lighted with his glory, and he cried mightily with a 
strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen and 


328 


The Philosophy of 


become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul 
spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird (birds sig¬ 
nify warriors). “I have called my servant Syrus, the bird.” 
One of these hateful birds which she has lately received into 
her cage is Louis Napoleon, whom the Pope has honored by 
the appellation, “ the holy son of the church — the saviour of 
the church.” But we continue the description: “For all 
nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornica¬ 
tion (this term means the unnatural connection of church 
and state, or the temporal and spiritual power vested in the 
Pope, which has been the damning sin of Papacy), and the 
kings of the earth have committed fornication with her; and 
the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abun¬ 
dance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from 
heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not 
partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues, 
for her sins have reached unto heaven and God hath remem¬ 
bered her iniquities ; reward her even as she hath rewarded 
you, and double unto her according to her works ; in the cup 
which she hath filled, fill it to her double. How much she 
hath glorified herself and lived deliciously, so much torment 
and sorrow give her, for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen 
and am no widow (the church of Christ is a widowed bride 
waiting the return of her bridegroom from heaven, therefore, 
by her own confession, she is not Christ’s church), and shall 
see no sorrow, therefore shall her plagues come in one day — 
death, mourning and famine, and she shall be utterly burned 
with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. And 
the kings of the earth who have committed fornication with 
her and lived deliciously, shall bewail her when they see the 
smoke of her burning, standing afar off, for the fear of her 
torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that 
mighty city, for in one hour is thy judgment come, and the 
merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her, for no 
man buyeth her merchandise any more ; the merchandise of 
gold and. silver, precious stones, pearls, fine linen, purple, 
silk, scarlet, and all thyme-wood, and all manner of vessels 
of wood, brass, iron, marble, cinnamon, odours, ointments, 


God and the World. 


329 


frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wlieat, beasts, slieep, 
horses, chariots and slaves and souls of men. And the fruits 
that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all 
things which are dainty and goodly are departed from thee, 
and thou shalt find them no more at all. The merchants of 
these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar 
off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing and say¬ 
ing, Alas, alas, that great city, which was clothed in fine linen 
and purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious 
stones and pearls, for in one hour is so great riches come to 
nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships 
and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, and 
cried, when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, Alas, 
alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships 
in the sea, by reason of her costliness, for in one hour is she 
made desolate.” 

Now comes the exclamations of joy from the Christian 
church and civilization of the world at this, her downfall: 
“ Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and 
prophets, for God hath avenged you on her; and a mighty 
angel took up a stone, like a great mill-stone, and cast it into 
the sea, saying, thus, with violence, shall great Babylon 
be thrown down and be found no more at all, and the voice of 
harpers and musicians, and of pipers and trumpeters shall be 
heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever 
craft he be, shall be found any more at all in thee; and the 
sound of a mill-stone shall be heard no more at all in thee; 
and the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in 
thee ; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall 
be heard no more at all in thee, for thy merchants were the 
great men of the earth, for by thy sorceries w'ere all nations 
deceived, and in her was found the blood of prophets and of 
saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.” 

This specific description is given so that no mistake might 
be made in giving the great Babylon, here brought to view, 
an application any thing less than one of world-wide power, 
resource and renown, and by any thing like a careful analysis 
42 


330 


The Philosophy of 


demonstrates that nothing but Papal Rome at all answers the 
delineations of the inspired picture. This rejoicing over her 
judgment, and consequent loss of riches and power, is the 
condition in which she is to be placed by the Catholic nations 
of the world turning against her, which, till now, had been 
under her dominion, and is the judgment they inflict by 
throwing off her temporal power. “ These shall hate the 
whore and make her desolate and naked, and burn her with 
fire,” etc. But now comes the rejoicing of the saints under 
the pouring out of the seventh vial into the air, when it was 
declared, “It is done “And after these things I heard a 
great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia, sal¬ 
vation and glory and honor and power unto the Lord our 
God, for true and righteous are his judgments; for he hath 
judged the [great whore which did corrupt the eartli with her 
fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her 
hand; and again they said, Alleluia, and her smoke rose up 
forever and ever, and the four and twenty elders and the four 
seraphims fell down and worshiped God that sat on the 
throne, saying, Amen, Alleluia. And a voice came out of 
the throne, saying, praise our God all ye his servants, and ye 
that fear him, both small and great. And I heard, as it were, 
the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many 
waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alle¬ 
luia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth, let us be glad 
and rejoice and give honor to him, for the marriage of the 
Lamb is come and his wife hath made herself ready, and to 
her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, 
clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of 
saints. And he saith unto me, write blessed are they which 
are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb, and he 
saith unto me, these are the true sayings of God. And I fell 
at his feet to worship him, and he said unto me, see thou do 
it not. (It is evident this personage was not a Papal priest, 
or he would have gladly received the homage.) I am thy fel¬ 
low servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, that have the 
testimony of Jesus ; worship God, for the testimony of Jesus 
is the spirit of prophecy.” 


God and the World. 


331 


CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

PREPARATION FOR THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 

Now follows the description of the great battle of Armaged¬ 
don, or of God Almighty, fought between Christ in person 
and the wicked nations of the earth, who have been assembled 
by the natural working of those political principles which 
came out of the mouth of the dragon, the beast, and the false 
prophet, whose object is to contest with each other the future 
supremacy of the earth; but to their eternal confusion and 
dismay is suddenly fulfilled the declaration closing the his¬ 
tory of the present world, and is the last plague. “ Behold I 
come as a thief.” And now, says the revelator, “I saw 
heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and he that sat 
upon him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness 
he doth judge and make war; his eyes were as a fiame of 
lire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name 
written that no man knew but he himself. And he was 
clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is 
called the word of God, and the armies which were in heaven 
followed him upon white horses clothed in fine linen white 
and clean, and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that 
with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them 
with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the wine-press of the 
fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and he hath on his 
vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and 
Lord of lords. And I saw an angel standing in the sun, and 
he cried with a loud voice, saying, to all the fowls (warriors) 
that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather yourselves 
together unto the supper of the great God, that ye may eat 
the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of 
mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and them that sit on 
them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small 


332 


The Philosophy of 


and great. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth, 
and their armies, gathered together to make war against him 
that sat on the horse and his army; and the beast was taken, 
and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before 
him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark 
of the beast, and them that worshiped his image. These both 
were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone, and 
the remnant were slain by the sword of him that sat upon tfye 
horse which proceeded out of his mouth, and all the fowls 
were filled with their flesh.” 

In connection with this we are presented with the following 
description of the harvest. Matt, xiii: “ And Jesus said unto 
them, He that soweth the good seed is the Bon of Man, the 
field is the world, the good seed are the children of the king¬ 
dom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one, the 
enemy that soweth them is the devil, the harvest is the end of 
the world and the reapers are the angels ; as, therefore, the 
tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the 
end of this world. The Son of Man shall send forth his 
angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom (the world) 
all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall 
cast them into a furnace of fire, there shall be weeping and 
gnashing of teeth; then shall the righteous shine forth in the 
kingdom of their Father ; who hath ears to hear let him hear.” 

This sending forth of the angels is brought out in the order 
of its fulfillment, in Rev. xiv: “And I looked and behold a 
white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of 
Man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a 
sharp sickle ; and another angel came out of the temple, cry¬ 
ing with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, thrust in 
thy sharp sickle and reap, for the time is come for thee to 
reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe ; and he that sat on 
the cloud thrust in his sharp sickle on the earth, and the earth 
was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple, he 
also having a sharp sickle ; and another angel came out from 
the altar, which had power over fire ; and he dried with a loud 
cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, thrust in thy 


God and the World. 


333 


sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, 
for her grapes are fully ripe ; and he thrust in his sharp sickle 
and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great 
wine-press of the wrath of God ; and the wine-press was 
trodden without the city, and blood came out of the wine¬ 
press, even unto the horse’s bridles, by the space of a thou¬ 
sand and six hundred furlongs.” 


Also Isaiah thus describes this scene : £ 4 Who is this that 
cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah % This 
that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of 
his strength; I that speak in righteousness mighty to save, 
wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments 
like him that treadeth in the wine fat ? I have trodden the 
wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with me, 
for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my 
fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, 
and I will stain all my raiment, for the day of vengeance is in 
my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I 
looked and there was none to help, and I wondered that there 
was none to uphold ; therefore mine own arm brought salvation 
unto me, and my fury it upheld me. And I will tread down 
the people in mine anger and make them drink in my fury, 
and I will bring down their strength to the earth.” 

In this great book, under the various chains of symboliza¬ 
tion it contains, is given God’s history of the world in 
advance, coming down to our own times, and the argument 
of the skeptic that the prophecies were written after the events 
they professed to foretell transpired, has no force here, because 
we have seen that a great many of the events thus foretold, 
such as those of the first six of the vials, have been and are 
bemg fulfilled in our own day and before our eyes. Here is 
depicted, with unerring precision and exactness, the successive 
march of empires, especially those nations connected with the 
church, and every important event through which they have 
passed, and all the changes being presented under so many 
different phases of development, and by such variety of fig¬ 
ures, symbols and positive, literal declarations, that it seems 


334 


The Philosophy of 


impossible any attentive reader can fail to see that God’s his¬ 
tory, thus given, not only finds its counterpart in the human 
history of nations, but demonstrates the truth that a being 
capable of seeing the end from the beginning only could be 
its author, and hence the author of the Bible. 

The importance of the book of Revelation is seen from the 
fact that it contains the condensation of almost all the truths 
of the prophets, the Psalms, and the descriptive fulfillment of 
the types and shadows of the Mosaic laws, and, therefore, 
without this book it would have been impossible to have 
understood them, although they contain almost every thing, 
and vastly more in detail, which is written in this wonderful 
book, all brought out, placed in the order of fulfillment, 
explaining its own figures, phrases and symbols. 

In regard to the prophetic periods, we wish simply to say 
that we were more disposed to pass them over without writing 
a word on them than otherwise, but finding it impossible to do 
justice, or even to make a great many of the events of 
prophecy intelligible, with which they stood connected, we 
could pursue no other course than we have; and when it is 
considered that it was the ignorance of the Jewish church 
and nation in regard to the prophetic periods which led them 
to reject Jesus as the Messiah, how could we refuse to give 
what we conceive to be the truth in regard to the commence¬ 
ment, length and termination of the prophetic numbers ? Had 
the Jews understood the seventy weeks of the prophecy of 
Daniel, the key to the length of which the inspirer of the 
prophet had furnished them, which was, that the first seven 
were to be consumed in rebuilding the street and temple 
of Jerusalem, and which they knew occupied forty-i^ne 
years — hence, a year for a day — and which was also to date 
from the issuing of the decree by Cyrus for the restoration 
and rebuilding of Jerusalem, the end of which reached to 
“Messiah, the Prince,” from which event they also knew 
that it was about four hundred and ninety years since their 
release from the Babylonish captivity; we say, if they had 
understood this period, and which was given for the express 


♦ 


God and the World. 


335 


purpose, Jesus, the Messiah, when he did come, would not 
have been under the painful necessity of solemnly declaring 
of them, “They perished because they knew not the time of 
their visitation .” 

Though we were under the necessity of writing upon these 
periods, and could no more omit it than a historian could 
omit the dates of events, yet we have not the slightest idea 
that the world, or even the church, as a body, will ever 
understand them ; not that the evidence is not overwhelming, 
but we gather this conviction from the words and com¬ 
parisons of Jesus, showing that the world will know nothing 
about the time of his second visitation any more than it did 
of the first. Says he in regard to this : “It shall be as it was 
in the days of Noah, they were eating and drinking, marry¬ 
ing and given in marriage, and knew not until the flood 
came and took them all away. So shall it be in the days of 
the coming of the Son of Man; and as a snare shall it come 
upon all them that dwell upon the face of the whole earth.” 

Happy, indeed, would it be, if mankind would take solemn 
heed to the admonitions of Jesus in regard to his return to 
judge the world: “If the good man of the house had known 
in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, 
and not have suffered his house to have been broken up. 
Watch ye, therefore, for in such an hour as ye think not the 
Son of Man cometh.” 

Prophetic events and periods seem to be so easy to be 
understood, that we cannot conceive why they will not; but 
that almost total ignorance will prevail in regard to them and 
their termination, these words of Jesus positively teach. 


336 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER XXXIX. 

SCRIPTURE CHRONOLOGY OF THE WORLD. 

Whether by tradition, or otherwise, the church in all ages 
has entertained the belief that the present world is to be six 
thousand years old, this being the utmost of its present phy¬ 
sical existence, or that which labors under the curse. 

That this belief is not without scripture authority will 
appear evident from the examination of the subject. The 
idea that the six days of creation are symbols of these six 
thousand years, and that the seventh prefigured the great rest 
of the people of God, supposed to be a millennium of uni¬ 
versal holiness and happiness, is not without argument in its 
favor. This will appear conclusive, with the exception that 
this seventh thousand year, as we have already shown, is to 
have no end, but is the commencement of the eternal rest of 
all God’s people, of all ages, of which the seventh day, on 
which God rested from all his labors, is the symbol, and rep¬ 
resents the seventh thousand years or the seventh millennium, 
but which is never to end, just as the day on which God 
rested from his works of creation had no end, which made it 
necessary for him to commence those labors again. We pro¬ 
pose to present this evidence, as introductory to the chro¬ 
nology of the world, and which will also be seen to be in won¬ 
derful harmony, not only with this idea, but also with the cal¬ 
culation we have made of the termination of the prophetic 
periods. 

Gen. ii, 23 : “ Thus the heavens and the earth were finished 
and all the host of them ; and on the seventh day God ended 
his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh 
day from all his work which he had made, and God blessed 
the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he had 


God and the World. 


337 


rested from all his work which God created and made.” Heb. 
xxxiv, 10 : “For he spake in a certain place (which we just 
quoted) of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the 
seventh day from all his works. As I have sworn in my 
wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although the works 
were finished from the foundation of the world.” 

Here we see that this rest was determined upon at the foun¬ 
dation of the world, and of course typified by the rest of the 
seventh day. “And in this place again, if they shall enter 
into my rest; for if Joshua had given them rest then would 
he not afterward have spoken of another day % there remaineth, 
therefore, a rest (or keeping of a Sabbath margin) to the peo¬ 
ple of God, for he that hath entered into his rest, he also hath 
ceased from his works, as God did from his.” We see by 
this that the deliverance of the Hebrews from Egyptian bond¬ 
age, and their being put in possession of the promised land of 
Canaan, was not this great promised rest, but only its type, 
while the rest itself embraced the inheritance promised to 
Abraham and Christ, his seed, looking into the new earth for 
its realization, and, as joint heirs, includes Abraham, the 
father of the faithful himself, who died without having 
received any of the things God had promised to him and his 
seed forever, Joshua and the faithful of all ages. As God’s 
rest from all his works of creation was eternal, so is the rest 
of his redeemed people to be when they shall be “ransomed 
from the grave,” and which was contemplated at the founda¬ 
tion of the world. He speaketh of another day on this wise, 
“As God did rest from his works, so shall his people rest 
from theirs.” 

After the end of the prophetic periods had been shown to 
Daniel, and reaching to the resurrection of the dead, Gabriel 
says: “Go thy way, Daniel,, till the end be, for thou shalt 
rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.” As Joshua 
divided the inheritance of the land of Canaan to the Jews, 
the children of Abraham according to the flesh, so shall Dan¬ 
iel and all the children of Abraham (the believers in Christ 
who are counted to him for the seed) be permitted to enter into 
43 


338 


The Philosophy of 


the “new heavens and new earth,” and the mansions of 
Jesus, the new Jerusalem, the antitype of the old, the eternal 
rest, introduced by the immortal millennium, beyond the res¬ 
urrection, but from that point runs on eternally. This idea is 
also forcibly brought to view in the revelation, after the des¬ 
truction of all those who are then found to have in any wise 
been identified with great Babylon takes place, for which 
event the church is directed patiently to look and wait. As 
the time when their great rest is to commence, we have the fol¬ 
lowing : “ And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for¬ 
ever and ever, and they have no rest , day nor night, who 
worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the 
mark of his name ; here is the patience of the saints; here 
are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith 
of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, 
Write, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from 
henceforth; yea, saith the spirit, that they may rest from 
their labors, and their works do follow them.” What fol¬ 
lows in this chapter also shows that the time here indicated 
by the expression, “from henceforth,” is that of the great 
harvest, in which the angels are said to gather the wicked 
(vine of the earth) and cast it into the great wine-press of the 
wrath of God, and which Jesus locates at the end of the world. 
The resurrected saints now, from henceforth , rest from all 
labor done in life, and now, in the great day of accounts, 
receive the promised reward which follows them. Says their 
Master: “ Lo, I come and my reward is with me,” while the 
dreadful reward of the wicked is that “they have no rest, 
day nor night, forever.” The saints enter into that eternal 
rest contemplated at the foundation of the world : “ Come, ye 
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you 
from the foundation of the world.” From henceforth they 
rest from their labors, as God did from his, never to labor 
more. 

Second Peter, iii, 7, 8, also contains light upon this sub¬ 
ject: “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by 
the same word kept in store, reserved unto fire against 


God and the World. 


339 


the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, 
beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is 
with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as 
one day. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look 
for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteous¬ 
ness.Here we have the six days of the Lord “as a thou¬ 
sand years each,” and the seventh, the great Sabbatic year, or 
rest, which remains for the people of God, by him promised 
to the prophet Isaiah, and here located by the apostle in the 
“new heaven and new earth,” whose rest shall be glorious. 
Jesus also very clearly corroborates this view in Luke xiii, 
31, 32: “The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, 
saying unto him, get thee out and depart hence, for Herod 
will kill thee ; and he said unto them, go ye and tell that 
fox, behold, I cast out devils, and do cures to-day, and 
to-morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.” In 
. order to appreciate the force of this saying, it must be 
remembered that Jesus was now in the fifth thousandth 
year of the world, represented by the fifth day of creation; 
this he must finish by the great work of human redemption 
(for he said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”), 
and through the next day, “to-morrow,” which would be the 
six thousandth year, and the “third,” or next day after this, 
the seventh, “I shall be perfected.” He will then finish and 
come forth from his'work of mediation, and in the glory 
of his Father, with all his holy angels with him. That 
which is perfected will then have come, and that which is 
in part will have been done away. This third day, therefore, 
synchronizes with the great Sabbath of God and his people’s 
rest. 

From these teachings can we come to any other conclusion 
than that the idea was intended to be taught, that the six 
days of creation were so many symbols (“a day with the 
Lord as a thousand years”), of the six thousand years of the 
world’s age, and that the seventh day, hallowed and sancti¬ 
fied by God, as the type beautifully represents, the great rest 
“that remaindeth for the people of God” in the “new 


340 


The Philosophy of 


heavens and new earth,’ 5 and, although introduced by a 
millennium, yet no more ends with it than the seventh day 
did on which God rested from all his works of creation, 
because they were finished. The rest of the saints from 
their labors is to be “as God rested from his,” therefore, 
eternal; this, by the way, is the only conception of a mil¬ 
lennium the scriptures reveal. 

We now propose to introduce what we understand to be the 
Bible chronology of the world. In this chronology we have, in 
no instance, followed human chronologists, utterly discarding 
the idea that the chronology of the world can ever be ascer¬ 
tained but by the Bible itself, and, even if there is a break in 
it for the first four thousand years of the world, the defect 
can never be corrected, simply because there is no standard 
of comparison. It is but reasonable to suppose that if the 
author of the Bible had ever commenced to give the world an 
inspired chronology of its age, he would have completed it, 
so that there would be no link lacking in the chain, and it 
seems most astonishing that this chronology has never been 
discovered before, for we shall see that such is its character. 
These dates and figures, running through more than four 
thousand years, communicated by inspiration to men living 
all along this period, can but impress others, as it has us, 
with a demonstrative argument, proving the divine authenti¬ 
city of the sacred scriptures. 


THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE WORLD, YEAR 1. 


From Adam to the birth of Seth. 


v, 3.. 

130 

Seth to Enos (E-nos). 

cc 

v, 6.. 

105 

Enos to Cainan (Ka-nan). 

cc 

v, 9.. 

90 

Cainan to Mahalalel (Ma-ha-la-lel). 

CC 

v, 12.. 

70 

Mahalalel to Jared. 

Cl 

v, 15.. 

65 

Jared to Enoch. 

Cl 

v, 18.. 

162 

Enoch to Methuselah (Me-thu-sa-lah).. 

a 

v, 21.. 

65 

Methuselah to Lamech (La-mek). 

cc 

v, 25.. 

187 

Lamech to Noah. 

ce 

GO 

182 

Noah to Shem.. 

cc 

v, 32.. 

500 


Carried forward 


1,556 














God and the 

World. 


341 

Brought forward. 



1,556 

From Shem to Arphaxad (Ar-fax-ad). 


xi, 10.. 

98 

Arphaxad to Salah (Sa-lah).'... 

a 

xi, 12.. 

35 

Salah to Eber. 

a 

xi, 14.. 

30 

Eber to Peleg (Pe-leg). 

({ 

xi, 16.. 

34 

Peleg to Reu (Re-u). 

(( 

xi, 18.. 

30 

Reu to Serug (Se-rug). 

a 

xi, 20.. 

32 

Serug to Nahor (Na-hor). 

a 

xi, 22.. 

30 

Nahor to Terah (Te-rah). 

a 

xi, 24.. 

29 

Terah to Abram. 

{( 

xi, 26.. 

70 

Abram to Isaac. 

u 

xxi, 5.. 

100 

Isaac to Jacob. 

(( 

xxv, 26.. 

60 

Jacob to Egyptian bondage. 


130 

Egyptian bondage. 


xv, 13.. 

400 

Journey in the wilderness. 

(( 

xiii, 8.. 

40 

REIGN" OF THE 

JUDGES. 



Otlmiel (Oth-ne-el). 


iii, 11.. 

40 

Israel served Eglon, king of Moab.... 

a 

iii, 14.. 

18 

Ehub (E-hnb). 

a 

iii, 30.. 

80 

Israel served Jabin, king of Cainan... 

ee 

iv, 3.. 

20 

Deborah, a prophetess, judged Israel.. 

(( 

v, 31.. 

40 

Israel ruled by the Midianites. 

(( 

vi, 1.. 

7 

Gideon. 

« 

viii, 28.. 

40 

Abimleck (Ab-im-me-lek). 

(( 

ix, 23.. 

3 

Tala (Ta-lah). 

(( 

xii, 2.. 

23 

Jair (Ja-er). 

ec 

xii, 3.. 

22 

Jephthah (Jef-thah). 

it 

xii, 7.. 

6 

Ibzan (Ib-zan)... 

a 

xii, 9.. 

7 

Elon (E-lon). 

a 

xii, 11.. 

10 

Abdon (Ab-don). 

a 

xii, 14.. 

8 

Samson, last judge.■.. 

a 

xvi, 31.. 

20« 

REIGN OF THE 

KINGS. 



Saul. 


xiii, 21.. 

40 

David. 

.. .1st Kings 

ii, 11.. 

40 

Solomon.. 

a 

xi, 24.. 

40 

Rehoboam (Re-ho-bo-am). 

a 

xiv, 21.. 

17 

Abijam (A-bi-jam). 

a 

xv, 2.. 

3 

Asa (A-sah). 

a 

xv, 10.. 

41 

Jehoshaphat (Je-hoash-a-fat). 

a 

xxii, 42.. 

25 

Jehoram (Je-ho-ram). 


viii, 17.. 

8 

Carried forward... 



3,332 











































342 


The Philosophy of 


Brought forward . 



3,232 

Ahaziah (A-ha-zf-ah) . 

2d Kings 

viii, 26. . 

1 

Jehu (Je-hu) . 

(( 

xii, 36. . 

28 

Jehoahaz (Je-ho-a-haz) . 

<( 

xiii, 1 .. 

17 

Joash (Jo-ash) . 

a 

xiii, 10 .. 

16 

Amaziah (Am-a-zi-ah) . 

(( 

xiv, 2. . 

29 

Azriah (Az-a-rl-ah). 

(C 

xv, 2.. 

52 

Jotham (Jo-tham). 

(( 

xv, 33.. 

16 

Ahaz (A-haz). 

££ 

xvi, 2.. 

16 

Hezekiah (Hez-e-ki-ah). 

(( 

xviii, 2 .. 

29 

Manasseh (Ma-nas-seh) . 

(£ 

xxi, 1.. 

55 

Amon (A-mon) . 

a 

xxi, 19. . 

2 

Josiah (Jo-si-ah) .. 

(£ 

xxxi, 1 .. 

31 

Jehoahaz (Je-hi-a-liaz) three months 

(£ 

xxiii, 31 .. 


Jehoiakim (Je-hay-a-kim) “ “ 

££ 

xxiii, 36. . 

11 

Jehoiakin (Je-hay-a-kin) . 

CC 

xxiv, 12 .. 

8 

Zedekiah (Zed-e-ki-ah) . 

££ 

xxiv, 13 .. 

11 

Captivity in Babylon,.Daniel ix, 2, Jeremiah 

xxv, 11.. 

70 

Prophetic period of the 70 weeks, reach¬ 




ing to the Christian era. 



453 

Christian era to the end of the prophetic 




periods, 1923. 



1,923 


Total.6,000 


Before coining to this conclusion, in fact, before investigat¬ 
ing the chronology of the world at all, we reasoned like this : 
If the duration of the world is to be six thousand years, and 
if the Bible contains all the dates and figures down to the 
jChristian era, and calling this 1923, added to it will make 6,000 
years, and which will exactly correspond with our calculation 
of the termination of the prophetic periods, which end 1923 
of the Christian era, it will add a conclusive argument in 
favor of its correctness, and, notwithstanding our supposition, 
to our astonishment, such was the result. 

If the author of the Bible had not fixed and determined the 
age of the world, what object could there have been in reveal¬ 
ing its chronology? and if the evidence is not conclusive 
which fixes that age at 6,000 years, there certainly is none 
giving it a longer or shorter one. 























God and the World. 


343 


In publishing these results to the world we wish only 
to say, we have had no theory to make out, well knowing 
that if we had been under the necessity of supplying a 
single date or figure, as all other chronologists have done, 
it would be said we made it longer or shorter, in order to 
make the chronology and prophetic periods correspond in 
their termination, but such not being the case, we cannot be 
subjected to any such reflection, and we, therefore, submit it 
free from responsibility. 

There are a few seeming discrepancies connected with some 
of the numbers which make up the chronology of the reign 
of the judges, to which we wish here to direct attention. The 
first is recorded, Judges xiii, 1 : “And the children of Israel 
did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them 
into the hands of the Philistines forty years.” At first sight 
this forty years appears to be a period between the reign of 
Addon, judge of Israel, and that of Samson, during which 
the Israelites were thus delivered; but on a little closer exami¬ 
nation it will be seen that the forty years includes the reign 
of Samson, as well as the period immediately preceding him. 
The children of Israel were delivered into the hands of the 
Philistines, against whom Samson waged war the whole of his 
reign, and which was more like skirmishing and making raids 
against a formidable foe, than that of carrying on a success¬ 
ful, and much less, a triumphant warfare. Indeed, Samson 
was himself a captive in the hands of the Philistines, whose 
eyes they had put out, at the time of his death, and who was 
now a captive, and with whom the Philistines were making 
sport in one of the temples of Dagon. “And Samson called 
unto the Lord and said, O, Lord, God, remember me, I pray 
thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of 
the Philistines for my two eyes, and strengthen me. And 
Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the 
house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with 
his right hand, and the other with his left, and Samson said, 
let me die with the Philistines, and he bowed himself with all 
his might, and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the 


344 


The Philosophy of 


people that were within, so that the dead which he slew at his 
death were more than they which he slew in his life.” 

The miraculous birth of Samson and his age, to maturity, 
was before the death of Addon, and at whose death Samson 
was ready to assume the judgeship of Israel, and which was 
marked by his immediate strategy and attacks upon the Phil¬ 
istines, who held Israel in subjection, and from which Samson 
was not able to deliver them during the whole twenty years of 
his reign. 

Another of these points relates to the whole period covering 
the reign of the judges. This period, as we have seen, made 
up of those years stated in the history each judge reigned, 
and those intervals between some of them when no judge 
reigned, amounts in all to three hundred and forty-four years, 
while Paul seems to make it longer. Acts xiii, 20: “And 
after that he gave them judges, about the space of four hun¬ 
dred and fifty years, until Samuel, the prophet.” The indefi¬ 
nite expression (“about”) which Paul here uses, shows that 
at this time he was uncertain in regard to the period covering 
the judgeship of Israel; there is, therefore, no direct contra¬ 
diction, or even discrepancy, as to this period of time, and we 
must take the definite figures covering the reign of each 
judge in succession, and the stated periods between them 
when no judge reigned, as the inspired chronology of that 
period of the world, whose statements as to time, as well as 
events, are never equivocal, like the heathen oracles, but 
always definite and positive, and against which even the indef¬ 
inite opinion of an apostle weighs nothing, as in this case. 
In contrast to this, and in the very next verse, we have Paul’s 
declaration as to the reign of King Saul, which is positive as 
to time: ‘ ‘And afterward they desired a king, and God gave 
unto them Saul, the son of Kish, by the space of forty years.” 

It is a remarkable fact that the time of the reign of all of the 
twenty-three kings of Israel are given in the history of their 
reign, with the exception of that of Saul, the first of the kings. 
The period of time, therefore, during which he reigned, would 
never have been known had not Paul, or some one else, been 


God and the World. 


345 

inspired to give it; hence, we have his positive statement: 
“God gave them Saul, by the space of forty years.” He 
immediately gives us the fact of David’s reign, as Saul’s suc¬ 
cessor, but says nothing concerning its length, this being 
unnecessary, because it was already given in connection with 
the history of his reigu, as well as that of all the others, 
twenty-three in number, and had we not been furnished with 
this statement of Paul, there would have been a break in 
the Bible chronology, which could only have been supplied 
by human opinion, and which would have marred it all; 
hence, we see how accurate the author of the scriptures has 
been in giving and preserving the figures which make up the 
chronology of the world. Its present age being 5,948, and by 
adding 52, brings it to the year 1923, the end of the pro¬ 
phetic periods, we have exactly 6,000 years as the whole age 
of the world. 

It may be said that this is a mere coincident circumstance, 
but if so, we would like to see a similar phenomenon which 
was not coincidental. Here are all the prophetic periods con¬ 
nected with each other, and ending in the year 1923 of the 
Christian era, and a chronology whose every statement of 
dates and figures is taken from the Bible itself, unchanged or 
modified, and, when added together, makes the world exactly 
6,000 years old in the same year, namely, 1923. We give no 
opinions upon this subject, but simply leave it where these 
facts, events and figures do, in regard to which every one 
must form his own opinion. Not to have put the figures 
down as we have seen them, would have been nothing less 
than criminal infidelity, and a clear violation of the injunction 
of Jesus, “Whatsoever is made known in secret, that publish 
upon the house-top,” between which and the reflection of 
being ranked among the visionary of the ages, we make not a 
moment’s hesitation, and the only misgiving we have is, that 
it seems to put off the end of the present world further than 
the events of the age fulfilling the world’s prophetic history 
warrants ; but of this, too, every man must be his own judge. 
One fact is clear. God has given the race prophetic periods 
44 


346 


The Philosophy of 


which reach to the end of this, and the introduction of the 
next world, and also an inspired chronology corroborating 
them, and for what other purpose, only that mankind may 
calculate and make timely preparation for the great event 
we are unable to understand. 

These periods, as well as a great many of the events they 
cover, although in the book of inspiration, were nevertheless 
clothed in such language, which sealed most of them to 
passed ages, so that all generations might constantly expect 
the coming of the great judgment, and, therefore, making it 
practically move their fears to “ prepare to meet their God.” 
In our day, however, there seems not to be the slightest expect¬ 
ation of the coming of that event. This, however, we think, 
is not owing to the non-fulfillment of prophecy, but in a 
belief in the great error of the world’s conversion, which we 
have seen to be such from the prophecies, and they constitute 
God’s history of the world and race, given in advance, show¬ 
ing that no better condition of Christianity will ever be real¬ 
ized than that the present age manifests, and not only so, but 
that the wickedness of the world is to increase more and more. 

The fact that all the elements of the last dispensation have 
been brought to bear, with all their potency, for eighteen 
hundred years, and yet that only here and there, among the 
masses, one is converted who lives and dies a Christian, pre¬ 
cludes the possibility of the conversion of the world, even 
had not the pen of inspiration drawn its picture as being one 
of almost universal wickedness when its end comes. The 
philosophy of a sinful world is against its realization, and 
above all God never inspired a prophet to write fhe picture 
of such a triumph of the gospel, but exactly the reverse. 

The idea of the world’s conversion is founded on a misap¬ 
plication of those passages of scripture descriptive of uni¬ 
versal holiness and righteousness over the whole earth, but it 
is the new earth , “ wherein dwelleth righteousness,” and not 
the present one to which these scriptures apply. It is the 
answer of our Lord’s prayer: “Thy kingdom come, thy will 
be done on earth as it is done in heaven,” and which can only 


God and the Would . 


347 


be realized, and yet will be, when his glorious kingdom is 
established “under the whole heaven.’’ “We look for a 
new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous¬ 
ness.” “ The knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as 
the waters do the sea,” but it will be the new earth and never 
this. “A king (Jesns) shall reign in righteousness from sea to 
sea and from the rivers unto the ends of the earth,” but it will 
be in “ the new heavens and the new earth.” The song of the 
angels, sung over the plains of Bethlehem, (“ Glory to God in 
the highest, on earth peace and good will to men”) shall yet 
be realized, but it will be on the new earth, where “Peace 
shall flow like a river and righteousness as the waves of the 
sea.” While this is true of the “ new earth,” (“ the world to 
come”) every picture of the present world, drawn by the pen 
of inspiration, represents it, in all periods of its history, and 
more especially that one immediately preceding its end, as 
being almost universally wicked, and for this very reason we 
have such predictions as the following: “For God cometh 
out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the world. It 
shall be as it was in the days of Noah and of Lot,” etc. 

A correct understanding, therefore, of the scriptures leave 
no room for this error, the practical effect of which is to 
strengthen ^ke hands of the wicked, by holding out the idea 
that a time is coming, and soon will appear, when all the sin¬ 
ners will be converted; hence every sinner responds in his 
heart, if he does not openly, u then will I also go with the 
multitude,” when none are left to persecute. But let the 
judgment of the last great day be brought practically near, so 
that a sinner may be impressed with the thought and truth, 
that though he bids fair to live for years, yet that he may at 
any moment be summoned to meet,his God in judgment, and 
is it to be supposed there would be that indifference now mani¬ 
fested in hearing the gospel % “It is high time to awake out 
of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we 
believed.” 


348 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER XL. 

THE FUTURE STATE OF HEATHENISM AND OF CHRISTIANITY 
CONTRASTED. 

Among all the schemes of ancient mythology, heathen 
philosophy or modern skepticism, recognizing the existence 
of a future state, nothing is proposed which survives death, 
and is susceptible of salvation, but a part of man’s nature, 
and among all the shades of these dreamy philosophies the 
idea of saving the body never came within the grasp of their 
flighty conception. While nice discriminations have been 
made between the component parts of man, including the 
mind, spirit or soul, as subjects of its salvation, the body has 
never been contemplated in any other light, after death 
passed upon it, than being eternally dead. 

We can only account for this ignorance from the fact of 
their having no knowledge of a written revelation of the 
direct and perfect creation of man at first, and the object of 
that creation, which alone brings “life and immortality to 
light,” and, never having dug deep enough to grasp the pro¬ 
found and philosophic truth, that such were the necessities of 
the work, leaves all their theories and schemes, relating to the 
manner of future existence, without any standard of compari¬ 
son by which to test their correctness, or to judge of any real 
recreation or resurrection of the whole man, comprehending 
mind, spirit, soul and body, as the essential departments of 
man’s nature, and, of course, acting under these instinctive 
endowments of nature which compels every man to entertain 
the though t that death is not an eternal sleep, and which also 
refers him to the Bible for its elucidation, but this, either 
being beyond his reach, or which he has neglected to investi¬ 
gate, is left thus in his necessary ignorance, he has soared 
away and ruminated in his fancied future state, bringing from 


God and the World. 


349 


thence vague fantasies, in the various shapes of the specula¬ 
tions of Socrates, Plato’s visions, Origen’s allegories, Emman¬ 
uel Swedenborg’s revelations or those of the Spiritualists, and 
lastly, and the most indefensible cf all, Emerson’s transcend¬ 
ental flights, with Parker’s groveling egotism, bv which every 
thing which did not come within the reach of his common 
sense was set aside as error, failing to comprehend or to recog 
nize the commonest fact in intellectual progress, that what 
is not common sense to one man, is such to another more 
enlightened on the subject; and, indeed, that which is not to 
the same man at one time, is at a future one profound philoso¬ 
phy. Thus have these deluged the mental world with fancy 
theories of a future state, having no more a standard by 
which to determine their truthfulness than have fabrics of 
dreams, and of course rendering argument, reason or true 
philosophy powerless to overthrow them. 

Socrates made the soul; the man; esteeming the body noth¬ 
ing but its carcass, a mere clog to its progress — while the 
God-man, in view of his incarnation, sang, in glorious antici¬ 
pation, “ a body hast thou prepared forme.” Heathen phi¬ 
losophy, in its most refined and elevated teachings, left the 
dead body a victim to eternal decomposition, but Jesus 
exclaimed of his body and soul confounded, ‘ c Thou wilt not 
leave my soul in hell (grave), neither wilt thou suffer thine 
Holy One to see corruption,” declaring that which was dead 
as being “ God’s Holy One.” And that his hope was realized, 
we here present Peter’s testimony : “ His soul was not left in 
hell, neither did his flesh see corruption,” and assigns as the 
reason that God. had raised him from the dead on the third 
day. 

Under the effulgent light of Christianity the great question 
propounded by Jesus, “ What is a man profited if he shall 
gain the whole world and lose his own soul ?” or, according to 
another of the evangelists, “ What is a man advantaged if he 
shall gain the whole world and lose himself or be cast way?” 
using here the term soul in its most comprehensive significa¬ 
tion, meaning the whole man , appears in all its transcendent 


350 


The Philosophy of 


beauty and importance, presenting the only solution to the 
question of man’s future destiny; and while heathenism 
leaves him disintegrated, contemplating his spirit, or soul, as 
only susceptible of future existence, Christianity includes all 
these departments of his nature, body also, proposing to save 
the man himself, and unless there is a resurrection of the 
man that died to life and immortality, there is no salvation of 
any degree or kind possible. Christ and his saints are dead, 
and all is lost. 

That the future state of heathen philosophy may appear in 
its true contrast with that of Christianity, and that we may do 
impartial justice to both, we will here introduce a passage 
from the writings of Socrates, the instructor of Plato, whose 
capability for presenting the opinions of the ancients upon 
this subject cannot be questioned. In a discourse to the 
Athenians, he says: “My friends, there is still one thing 
which is very just to believe ; if the soul be immortal, it 
requires to be cultivated with attention, not only for what we 
call the time of life, but for that which is to follow — I mean 
eternity. The least neglect on this point may be attended 
with endless consequences. If death were the final dissolu¬ 
tion of being, the wicked would be great gainers by it, by 
being delivered at once from their bodies, their souls and their 
vices. But as the soul is immortal, it has no other means of 
being freed from its evils, nor any safety in them but by 
becoming very good and very wise; for it carries nothing 
away with it but its good or bad deeds, its virtues or vices, 
which are commonly the consequences of the education it has 
received, and the causes of eternal happiness or misery. 
When the dead are arrived at the rendezvous of departed 
souls, whither their demon conducts them, they are all 
judged. Those who have passed their lives in a manner 
neither entirely criminal nor absolutely innocent are sent into 
a place where they suffer pains, proportioned to their faults, 
till, being pardoned and cleansed of their guilt, are afterward 
restored to liberty, and receive the reward of the good actions 
which were done in the body. Those who are judged to be 


God and the World . 


351 


incurable on account of the greatness of their crimes, who 
deliberately have committed sacrileges, or murders and other 
such great offenses, the fatal destiny that passes judgment 
upon them hurls them into Tartarus, from whence they never 
depart. But those who are found guilty of great crimes 
indeed, but Worthy of pardon, who have committed violence 
in the transports of rage against their father or mother, or 
have killed some one in like emotion and afterward repented, 
receive the same punishment, and in the same place with the 
last, but for a time only, till by their prayers and supplica¬ 
tions they have obtained pardon from those they have injured. 
But those who have passed their lives with peculiar sanctity 
of manners are delivered from their bodies as from a base, 
earthly prison, they are received on high in a pure region, 
which they inhabit, and as philosophy has sufficiently puri¬ 
fied them, they live without their bodies through all eternity, 
in a series of joys and delights it is not easy to describe.’’ 

Socrates lived about four hundred and thirty years before 
Christ, and his doctrines were substantially introduced into 
the Catholic church, as we have already seen, by Origen, a 
Platonic philosopher, and here originated the Papal doctrine 
of purgatory, etc. But we shall see that the future state, 
brought to view in the scriptures, stands in wide contrast to 
this. We do not mean that state existing between death and 
the resurrection, which is only temporary, but that which lies 
beyond, and is eternal.! 

That these Athenian philosophers in Paul’s day still enter- 
# tained the sentiments of Socrates and Plato, and had no idea 
of the resurrection of the dead, is evident from the following : 
Acts, xvii, 16-19—“Now while Paul waited at Athens, his 
spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to 
idolatry, therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the 
Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily 
with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers of 
the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him, and some 
said, What will this babbler say ? Others said, he seemeth to be 
a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto them 


352 


The Philosophy of 


Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him unto Arreop- 
agus, saying, may we know what this new doctrine whereof 
thou speakest is? for thou bringest certain strange things 
to our ears; may we know, therefore, what these things 
mean ? 5 5 

It is evident from what we have here thus briefly stated of 
this encounter with those philosophers, that Paul did not 
preach the doctrine of purgatory, or the eternal disembodied 
spiritual future state of Socrates and Plato, or would they 
have made the acknowledgment they did, that it was new 
and strange ? Had Paul done this he would have been 
hailed as a fraternal brother ; nor could there have been any 
resemblance between his views of the future state and their’s,* 
or they would have immediately discovered and acknowl¬ 
edged it. Indeed, these heathen philosophers were too honest 
to do what the corrupt hand of Papacy afterward did, by 
clutching these heathen errors and mixing them up with her 
Babel system as Christian. 

The Bible doctrine of the resurrection teaches the follow¬ 
ing truths: That it is the foundation of the Christian system ; 
that the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked takes 
place at the same time; that the resurrection body of the 
saints is the same material body that died; that the princi¬ 
ples of change through which the saints pass at the resurrec¬ 
tion is from natural to spiritual bodies, from corruption to 
incorruption, from mortal to immortal, from dishonor to 
honor and glory, from weakness to power; that Christ’s 
resurrection body is the example of that of his saints. In 
the last place we shall endeavor to answer the following 
objections: That a material body cannot be enduring and 
eternal; that two dead men possess the same particles of 
matter, and, therefore, both cannot be raised ; that if all who 
ever lived and died should live at once, there would not be 
room enough on earth for them to stand. 

The importance of the resurrection we argue from the fact 
that error in regard to it is destructive of saving faith. Second 
Tim. ii, 17, 18: “And their word will eat as doth a canker, 


CrOD AND THE WORLD. 


353 


of whom is Hymeneus and Pliiletus, who concerning the truth 
have erred, saying, that the resurrection is passed already, 
and overthrew the faith of some, nevertheless the foundation 
of God standeth sure.” It will be noticed that this canker- 
eating error, which had overthrown the faith of those who 
embraced it, was not that there was to be no resurrection, but 
that it had passed already, and of course was not the resur¬ 
rection of the body, which is the only resurrection the Bible 
contemplates, and therefore could have been none other than 
that all the resurrection there was consisted in the heathen 
notion that it came when a man died, and hence had passed 
already on all the dead. This idea was clearly brought out 
at the death of Socrates himself, just before he was to drink 
the hemlock, the poisonous instrument of his execution. 
Crito, his servant, asked him “In what manner he thought lit 
to be buried ?” “As you please,” said Socrates, “if you can 
lay hold of me, and I not escape out of your hands.” At the 
same time looking on his friends with a smile, said, “I can 
never persuade Crito that Socrates is he who converses with 
you, and disposes the several parts of his discourse. He 
always imagines that I am what he is going to see dead in a 
little while ; he confounds me with my carcass, and therefore 
asks me how I would be interred.” Goldsmith’s History of 
Greece, page 183. As the resurrection is the great foundation 
truth of Christianity, of course error in regard to it, as we 
here see, must be fatal. As well attempt to build a house 
without a foundation as to hope for immortality and eternal 
life otherwise than through the resurrection of the dead. 

Matt, xxii, 28: “ Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife 
shall she be of the seven? Jesus answered and said unto 
them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures (which teach 
its nature), nor the power of God (to accomplish the work), 
for in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in 
marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven (in this res¬ 
pect); but, as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye 
not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I 
am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God 
45 


354 


The Philosophy of 


of Jacob % God is not the God of the dead, but of the liv¬ 
ing.” Luke records it thus: “And Jesus answering, said 
unto them, The children of this world marry and are given in 
marriage, but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain 
that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry 
nor are given in marriage, neither can they die any more, foi 
they are equal unto the angels (exempt like them from 
death), and are the children of God, being the children of the 
resurrection.” The most important idea here taught is, that 
these patriarchs being now dead, God does not acknowledge 
himself to be their God, “for he is not the God of the dead.” 
Death is the effect of sin, and God is a God of life, having no 
fellowship with death ; but as he is declared by Moses to be 
their God, therefore, to make the declaration true, they must 
be raised from the dead and live again, as he is only the God 
of the living, or, as the comment of Jesus has it: “ They are 
the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.” 
It will also be observed that those who have part in this resur¬ 
rection are not only the immortal saints who can “die no 
more,” but that their habitation from that event onward is a 
world. “They who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that 
world.” This is not the intermediate state, but the world to 
come— “The new heaven and new earth.” 

Heb. xi, 15: “And others were tortured not accepting 
deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.” 
The great hope of these suffering martyrs, we see, rested on 
the foundation of the resurrection of the dead. No matter 
what was the torture or nature of the death which awaited 
them, they accepted it freely, rather than lose a part in the 
better resurrection. First Cor. xv, 12-19: “And if Christ be 
preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among 
you that there is no resurrection of the dead ? but if there be 
no resurrection of the dead, then is not Christ risen; and if 
Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith 
is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, 
because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, 
whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not, for if 


God and the World. 


355 


the dead rise not, then is Christ not raised ; and if Christ be 
not raised your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins; then 
they, also, which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished ; if 
in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men 
most miserable ; else what shall they do which are baptized 
for the dead. If the dead rise not at all, why are they then 
baptized for the dead (this is the baptism of suffering. ‘ I 
have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened 
till it be accomplished, Jesus?’) and why stand we in jeop¬ 
ardy every hour ? I protest, by your rejoicing which I have 
in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If, after the manner 
of men, I have fought with the beasts at Ephesus, what 
advantageth it me if the dead rise not ? Let us eat and drink, 
for to-morrow we die.” Such is the estimate in which this 
doctrine was held by the great apostle of the Gentiles, and 
can any thing be more certain than that he had no faith in the 
future disembodied condition of the dead, as taught by 
heathen philosophy ; in fact, that there was no future state, 
in his estimation, worth having, only that which lay beyond 
the resurrection? Look at his teaching: “If there be no 
resurrection of the dead our preaching is Tain , your faith is 
also vain , we are false witnesses, our testimony that Christ is 
risen is not true, he is yet dead, and they also which sleep in 
him are perished. If we only have hope in this life, or in any 
intermediate state this side of the resurrection, and that never 
to take place, then we are of all men most miserable ; better 
for me had I died, than to have fought with the beasts in the 
amphitheater at Ephesus for my life. No, let us all eat and 
drink, let us enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, if to-mor¬ 
row we die, and beyond that there is no resurrection, what¬ 
ever else there may be. 


356 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER XLI. 

THE RESUEEECTIOX THE HOPE OF THE SAIXTS. 

That the resurrection was the hope of the tribes of Israel is 
evident from the sentiments of Paul’s plea before Agrippa, 
Acts xxvi, 6 : “ And now I stand and am judged for the hope 
of the promise made of God unto our fathers, unto which 
promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and 
night, hope to come, for which hope’s sake, King Agrippa, I 
am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing 
incredible with you that God should raise the dead ?” It was 
also the hope of the saints before the Jews were a nation. 
Job says, xiv, 10 : “But man dieth and wasteth away ; yea, 
man giveth up the ghost, and where is he \ As the waters 
fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up, so 
man lieth down and riseth not; till the heavens be no more 
they shall not awake nor be raised out of sleep. O, that thou 
wouldst keep me secret until thy wrath be passed, that thou 
wouldst appoint me a set time and remember me. If a man 
die shall he live again % All the days of my appointed time 
will I wait till my change come (resurrection change), thou 
shalt call and I will answer thee.” (All them that are in their 
graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God and come 
forth.) How, while the mind and heart of Job was fixed 
upon this subject, God removes his doubts, and favors him 
with a clear revelation of the certainty and nature of the 
resurrection. Gladdened and astonished at the view, he 
exclaims : “ O, that my words were now written; O, that they 
were printed in a book, that they were graven with an iron pen 
and laid in the rock forever.” How comes the great revela¬ 
tion : “For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall 
stand at the latter day upon the earth, and though, after my 
skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see 


God and the World. 


357 

God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold , 
and not another, though my reins be consumed within me.” 

The change Job expected was not to come until the latter 
day, and he associates it with the passing away of the 
heavens: “I shall not awake till the heavens be no more,” 
and though the worms of decomposition destroy first the skin, 
then the whole body, “ yet in my flesh shall I see God,” is 
his positive exclamation. There is here an absence of the 
natural corrupt body, composed of flesh and blood, but it is 
nevertheless with his own eyes and in his own flesh, which have 
been changed from corruption into immortal youth, in which 
he is to see God, his Redeemer, and not those of another. It is 
no new creation, but God has had ‘ c respect to the work of his 
hands.” Job has responded to the call of his living Re¬ 
deemer: “Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming when 
all that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of 
God, and they that hear shall live.” Paul condenses this 
inspired picture of Job’s into one verse : “In a moment, in 
the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet 
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and 
we shall be changed.” Isaiah has it: “Awake and sing, ye 
that dwell in the dust, and the earth shall cast out her dead, 
thy dead men shall awake; together with my dead body shall 
they arise.” 

We here introduce the vision of this resurrection change, as 
seen by the Prophet Ezekiel, while it was transpiring, whicli 
lucidly depicts the different stages through which the dead 
pass incoming forth to eternal life. Chapter xxxvii: “The 
hand of the Lord was upon me, and he carried me out in the 
spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the val¬ 
ley, which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them 
round about; and behold there were very many in the open 
valley, and lo, they were very dry; and he said unto me, Son 
of man, can these bones live ? and I answered, 0, Lord God, 
thou knowest. Again he said unto me, prophesy upon these 
bones and say unto them, 0 ye dry bones, hear ye the word 
of the Lord; thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, 


358 


The Philosophy of 


behold I will cause breath to enter into you and ye shall live, 
and I will lay smews upon you, and cover you with skin, and 
put breath in you and ye shall live, and ye shall know that I 
am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as 
I prophesied there was a noise, and behold, a shaking, and 
the bones came together, bone to his bone ; and when I beheld 
lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin 
covered them above ; but there was no breath in them. (They 
were now in the same condition as that of Adam after God 
had formed him, and before he breathed into him the breath 
of life.) Then said he unto me, prophesy unto the wind (or 
spirit), prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, thus saitli 
the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath, and 
breath upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied 
as I was commanded, and the breath came into them, and they 
lived and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army. 
(The innumerable company.) Then said he unto me, Son of 
man, these bones are the whole house of Israel (the whole seed 
of Abraham. “ They which be of faith are blessed with faith¬ 
ful Abraham ; if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed 
and heirs, according to the promise that his seed should be as 
the stars of heaven, or as the sand upon the sea-shore, innu¬ 
merable”). Behold, they say our bones are dried and our 
hope is lost (their hope was lost without the resurrection); we 
are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto 
them, thus saith the Lord God, O, my people, I will open 
your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, and 
will bring you into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that 
I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O, my peo¬ 
ple, and brought you out of your graves, and shall put my 
spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your 
own land ; then shall ye know that I, the Lord, have spoken 
it, and have performed it, saith the Lord.” 

Here we are furnished with a clear description of the resur¬ 
rection of the dead, that is, the righteous dead, embracing 
God’s people of all ages, and a simple and yet complete delin¬ 
eation of what constitutes a resurrection body, composed of 


God and the World. 


359 


bones, sinews, flesh, and skin, vitalized and spiritualized by 
the breath of God. In corroboration of these views of the 
resurrection body, as a substantial organization, let us turn 
again to Paul’s great argument, portraying the nature of the 
change through which the bodies of the saints pass: “But 
some man will say, how are the dead raised up, and with 
what bodies do they come ? Thou fool, that which thou sow- 
est is not quickened except it die ; and that which thou sow- 
est, thou so west not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it 
may be chance of wheat or some other grain ; but God giveth 
it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own 
body. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind 
of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes and 
another of birds; there are also celestial bodies and bodies 
terrestrial, but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory 
of the terrestrial is another; there is one glory of the sun, and 
another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for 
one star diflereth from another star in glory, so also is the 
resurrection of the dead; it is sown in corruption, it is raised 
in incorruption.” Marie , it is the same body that died in cor¬ 
ruption, which is raised in incorruption. And here is the first 
element of the resurrection change. 

Secondly: “ It is sown in dishonor.” It was born under the 
dishonorable condemnation of the curse, and fell among the 
unhonored ruins of the empire of death, which entered the 
world in consequence of sin ; “ but it is raised in glory.” “It 
is sown in weakness.” It fell a frail victim to the rapacious 
tyrant of the grave, “but it is raised in power,” possessing 
the immortal elements of eternal duration. “Neither can 
they die any more.” “It is sown a natural body, it is raised 
a spiritual body ; there is a natural body and there is a spir¬ 
itual body, and so it is written, the first man Adam was 
made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening 
spirit; how be it that was not first which was spiritual, but 
that which was natural, and afterward that which is spiritual; 
the first man is of the earth earthy, the second man is the 
Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that 


360 


The Philosophy of 


are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that 
are heavenly, and as we have borne the image of the earthy, 
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now, this I 
say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the king¬ 
dom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.” 

Here we have the representatives of the source of the life of 
both worlds. The first Adam transmitted to his posterity 
corrupt and dying nature — the natural body, “the life that 
now is but the second Adam confers eternal life, and of 
course not susceptible of decay or dissolution, because incor¬ 
ruptible, which all the saints receive on the morning of the 
resurrection ; the corrupt composition received from the first 
Adam of flesh and blood, now yields to the infusion by the 
spirit of God, of a vitality taking the place of the;animal blood, 
characterized by Moses as the principle of the present life. 
“The blood is the life thereof,” the body is therefore a “ spir¬ 
itual body,” and for the additional reason that it is raised 
from the dead by the spirit of God. Homans viii: “If the 
spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in 
you, the spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead 
shall also quicken your mortal bodies,” of course rendering 
them immortal or spiritual bodies ; hence, though flesh and 
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, any more than a 
thing or being can be corruptible and incorruptible at the 
same time, yet spiritual bodies, composed of bones, sinews, 
flesh and skin, can, as we have seen, inherit that kingdom, 
for this, as we shall also see, was the nature of Christ’s resur¬ 
rection body, and the promise is that the saints shall bear 44 the 
image of the heavenly” — Christ’s glorious body ; this, there¬ 
fore, is what constitutes a 4 ‘spiritual body,” but it is a very 
different thing from a bodiless spirit, which are the inhabit¬ 
ants of the imaginary heaven, or future state of heathenism. 


God and the World . 


361 


CHAPTER XLII. 

THE RESURRECTION BODY OF CHRIST THE EXAMPLE OF HIS 

SAINTS. 

Continuation of Paul’s reasoning on this subject: “Be¬ 
hold, I show you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, but we 
shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, 
at the last trump ; for the trumpet shall sound and the dead 
shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed, for this 
corruption must put on incorruption, and this mortal must 
put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying 
that is written, death is swallowed up in victory, O, death, 
where is thy sting, O, grave, where is. thy victory ? ” First 
Thess. iv, 13 : “ But I would not have you ignorant, brethren, 
concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not as others 
which have no hope, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose 
again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring 
him ; for this we say unto you, by the word of the Lord, that 
we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord 
shall not prevent (hinder) them which are asleep, for the Lord 
himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice 
of the archangel and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ 
shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be 
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord 
in the air, and so shall we be ever with the Lord, wherefore 
comfort one another with these words.” Phil, iii : “ For our 
conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the 
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile 
body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, 
according to the working, whereby he is able even to subdue 
all things unto himself.” 

Here we have the fact presented in various places, and in 
46 


362 


The Philosophy of 


the clearest and most positive language, that the resurrection 
body of Christ is the example of that of his saints. Now, 
the question is, what kind of a body was that ? and so far as 
this one argument goes, if we find that it was a spirit, purely, 
not composed of materiality, then the bodies of the saints will 
also be such; but, after his resurrection, if it be found that 
Christ had a real material body, then such is to be the bodies 
of his saints, subsequent to their resurrection. Matt, xxviii, 
9, 10: “And as they went to tell his disciples, behold Jesus 
met them, saying, all hail, and they came and held him J)y the 
feet and worshiped him ; then said Jesus unto them, be not 
afraid, go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there 
shall they see me.” Luke xxiv, 36-42 : “And as they thus 
spake Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith 
unto them, peace be unto you; but they were terrified and 
affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit, and he 
said unto them, why are ye troubled, and why do thoughts 
arise in your hearts ? Behold my hands and my feet, that it 
is I myself, handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and 
bones , as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken he 
showed them his hands and his feet; and while they yet 
believed, not for joy, and marveled, he said unto them, 
have ye any meat ? and they gave him a piece of broiled fish, 
and of a honeycomb, and he took it and did eat before them.” 

It is true that on the occasion of his being made known 
unto them, in the breaking of bread, it is said, “He vanished 
out of their sight,” but this is thus explained: “And it came to 
pass that while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus 
himself drew near, and went with them, but their eyes were 
holden that they should not know him.” Thus it was that 
he vanished out of their sight , and here we have an exhibi¬ 
tion of the real body which was crucified, bearing the scars of 
Calvary, in its resurrection form, and is, therefore, immortal 
and incorruptible, and is a spiritual body. It had been sown 
in dishonor, but was now risen in glory, yet it was the same 
material organization which hung on the cross and was laid 
in the rock-bound tomb of “Joseph.” It was not a spirit, 


God and the World. 


363 

• 

but the living Lord himself, possessed of the same flesh and 
bones which “ saw no corruption,” that died and was buried. 
The disciples held him by the feet, he showed them his hands 
and his feet, he ate meat before them, to convince them that 
he was not a spirit, and which they knew a spirit could not 
do. He thus appealed to the senses of feeling and sight, and 
to the reason of the disciples, in attestation of the truth that 
it was Jesus himself who had risen from the dead. 

In still further confirmation of this truth, we introduce the 
following testimony. Acts ii, 25-82: “For David speaketh 
concerning him. (Psa. xvi, 10.) I foresaw the Lord always 
before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not 
be moved; therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was 
glad; moreover, also my flesh shall rest in h6pe, because 
thou wilt not leave my soul in hell (life in the grave), neither 
wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” The idea 
here is that God would not suffer Jesus, who was now dead 
and in the grave, to remain there long enough to turn to cor¬ 
ruption. Hence the apostle’s explanation, which follows: 
“Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the Patri¬ 
arch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre 
is with us unto this day, therefore, being a prophet, and 
knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the 
fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up 
Christ to sit on his throne, he, seeing this before, spake of 
the resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in hell, 
neither did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus hath God 
raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.” Thus, according 
to the prophetic promise, the flesh of the “Holy One” rested 
in hope of this resurrection, which was fulfilled early on the 
morning of the “third day,” when Jesus himself came forth 
in triumph from the dark and dreary confines of the dead, and 
sent his angel to inspire the revelator to write, “ I am he that 
liveth, and was dead, and behold I am alive forever more, 
amen, and have the keys of hell and death.” In every 
description given of the resurrection body the pen of inspira¬ 
tion has purposely avoided giving it blood ; hence, in regard 


364 The Philosophy of 

i 

to this feature of the body of Jesus, we read, “He spilt his 
blood, he poured out his life, he shed his blood for the sins 
of the world,” and similar expressions, all of which signify 
the same thing ; and it must be observed that this life-blood 
which Jesus sacrificed on Calvary, to make an atonement for 
the sins of the world, constituted no part of his resurrection 
body. It was this natural life (for there is a natural body) 
which was poured out unto death, and which was never 
resumed again, but from thenceforth it was the spiritual 
body, because raised and vitalized by the spirit of God. He 
was, however, the same identical Christ which was crucified, 
dead, buried and resurrected, and was no spirit, for a spirit 
had no flesh and bones, as the disciples saw him have, and as 
he declared ^ie himself possessed. 

What the physical, vitalizing principle of the resurrection 
body will be, which is to take the place of the life-blood, the 
vital principle of the present life, the pouring out of which 
results in death, in the absence of all or any organic derange¬ 
ment, we are unable to tell; of the fact, however, we are 
clearly informed, that it will not be animal blood, but some 
deathless principle infused into the sleeping bodies of all his 
saints by the spirit of God, resulting in their resurrection 
from the dead. From the fact that the dead are to be raised 
by the spirit of God, it does not follow that God thus imparts 
his own life principle, or one which will eternally perpetuate 
the existence of the saints conferring “eternal life,” because 
the vitalization of the first Adam was by the direct breath or 
spirit of God, and yet he was subject to corruption and death. 

It seems as though this principle was contained in the “tree 
of life,” which grew in the garden of Eden, from which our 
first parents were excluded after their sin, and the words of 
the prohibition show this intent: “Lest he put forth his hand 
and eat of the tree of life and live for ever .” To say the 
least of this tree, it must have been possessed of those chemi¬ 
cal properties adapted to counteract that hardening, ossifer¬ 
ous tendency of the physiological system, resulting from age, 
and which, in the absence of all physical derangement, other 


God and the World. 


365 


than this, results in death, and, therefore, the indefinite pro¬ 
longation of the present life, even with the coursing of the 
corrupt life-blood through the human system. This seems to 
have been the condition in which our first parents were placed 
before the fall, by which event came death into the world, 
and, therefore, was no part of the original creation; “and so 
death passed upon all men, for all have sinned.” This tree 
of life was the type of the eternal tree of life, which is to be 
in the new heavens and the new earth, the eternal abode of 
the saints, and to which they will then have free access. 
Rev. xxii, 1: “And he showed me a pure river of water of 
life, clear as crystal, out of the throne of God and the Lamb, 
and on either side was there the tree of life , which bear 
twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month, 
and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 
Blessed are they which do his commandment^, that they may 
have right to the tree of life and enter in through the gates 
into the city.” 

The supposition that the tree of life which was in the garden 
of Eden was the type of Christ, cannot be correct from two 
considerations, first, because its antitype, which is in the new 
heavens and earth, is also declared to be the tree of life, and 
not Christ; and, secondly, that in this new earth there are no 
types. These are temporary, and belong to the present tem¬ 
porary world, but in the new earth all is eternal, and every 
thing connected with that world are the eternal antitypes, to 
which the types and shadows of the present changing world 
all point. 

It will be noticed that it is said, “The leaves of this tree 
were for the healing of the nations (the nations of them that 
are saved),” not a continual partaking of it, but once , and 
that on entering the eternal city, according to their right, 
they partook of the leaves , for it was not the fruit, but the 
leaves which were for the healing of the nations, and eternal 
youth was the result. This, also, would seem to have been 
the case with Adam; had he once put forth his hand and par 
took of the tree of life, he would have necessarily lived for 


3G6 


The Philosophy of 


ever. This, therefore, was the arrangement of God in the first 
paradise, but that being lost, the tree of life was transplanted 
into paradise restored, the “Eden of the whole earth” — 
“the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness,”—and with 
the glorious surroundings of that “world” Jesus declares of 
his saints, not that they will not die, but “neither can they 
die any more.” 

That the resurrected and immortal inhabitants of the new 
earth may eat of its fruits, is demonstrated by the fact that 
after the resurrection of Jesus he ate broiled fish and honey¬ 
comb, and that, too, in order to convince his disciples that he 
was not of such a spiritual or immaterial nature which would 
render the mastication and disposition of material food an 
impossibility. All we have to say to those who fancy that 
the saints, in their eternal future, are to be reduced to an 
intangible, immaterial, sublimated and spiritual etherialism, 
sitting on clouds, singing psalm tunes, or skipping about 
in space on sunbeams, or with wings made of nothing and 
nothing after they are made, propelling them around in the 
trackless regions of the heathen philosophic sky, is, that we 
have an undying hope in a glorious resurrection of the dead, 
to which we hope to be able to hold fast as the form of sound 
words , and abide the issue. With us, the only question is, 
“ What saith the scriptures? these being the words which the 
Holy Ghost useth, are our only arguments.” 

That no more radical than apparent change took place at 
and after the resurrection in the body of Jesus, before his 
ascension, or ever will, until his second coming again, is proved 
by the following : Epli. iv, 8—“ Wherefore he saith, when he 
ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts 
to men. Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also 
descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that 
descended (into the grave) is the same also that ascended up 
far above all heavens.” The history of his ascension is 
recorded in Acts i, 9-11: “ And when he had spoken these 
things, while they beheld, he was taken up ; and a cloud 
received him out of their sight, and while they looked stead- 


God and the World. 


367 


fastly toward heaven, as lie went np, behold, two men stood 
by them in white apparel; which also said, ye men of Galilee, 
why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which 
is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner 
as ye have seen him go into heaven.” 

The fulfillment of this angelic declaration, and which also 
refers to his resurrection, is recorded in Rev. i, 5-8: “And 
from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first 
begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the 
earth, unto him that loved us, and washed us in his own blood, 
and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his father ; 
to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 
Behold he cometh with clouds ; and every eye shall see him ; 
and they also which pierced him ; and all kindreds of the earth 
shall wail because of him, even so Amen. I am Alpha and 
Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which 
is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” 
Thus we have the same identical Christ, who was born in Beth¬ 
lehem of Judea, that was crucified on the cross, buried in the 
tomb of Joseph, raised from the dead the third day, ascended 
to heaven, coming again in the clouds of heaven, bearing the 
same marks of the crucifixion which he showed to the dis¬ 
ciples, of those who pierced him, who shall now behold the 
awful scars which yet his dazzling body wears, and shall wail 
at the appalling sight, while all his saints exclaim : 

Lo ! ’tis he, our hearts’ desire, 

Come for his espoused below; 

Come to join us with his choir, 

Come to make our joys o’erflow; 

All discern him, all with shouts 
Cry out: ’tis he. 


368 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER XLIII. 

THE EESUEEECTION OF THE WICKED. 

The resurrection which we have now considered, as has 
been seen, relates exclusively to the righteous, and although 
the resurrection of the wicked is as positively taught in the 
scriptures, yet there is comparatively little said of its nature, 
and the doctrine is principally to be gathered by contrast with 
that of the righteous. We propose here to quote those pas¬ 
sages which positively teach the doctrine. Dan. xii, 2 : “And 
many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall aw x ake, 
some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting 
contempt.” Acts xxiv, 15: “And have hope toward God, 
which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resur¬ 
rection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust.” John 
v, 28, 29: “ Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in the 
which all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall 
come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of 
life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of dam¬ 
nation.” Gal. vi, 7, 8: “ Be not deceived, God is not mocked, 
for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap, he that 
soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption , but he 
that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlast¬ 
ing.” Here is set forth the contrast between the resurrection 
of the righteous and of the wicked, while that of the latter 
is as positively declared as words can do it in the mouth of 
more than two or three witnesses. The righteous have sown 
to the spirit, and the harvest they reap is one of incorruption 
and eternal life, while that which the wicked reap is one of 
corruption. The righteous are raised from dishonor to glory, 
while the wicked come forth to shame and everlasting con- 


God and the World . 


369 


tempt. The resurrection of the righteous is from weakness to 
power , so that they can stand before the Son of Man, and, 
with composure, not only endure the glory of his counte¬ 
nance, but with rapture sing, ‘ ‘ Lo, this is our God, we have 
waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation ;” 
while the wicked, covered with horror and shame, come forth 
reluctantly from graves of dishonor, and, with the weakness 
of infancy, call for the rocks and mountains to hide them 
from the awful presence of him whom they had rejected, and 
to hear the dreadful summons issued to the reaping angels, 
“ Bring hither those men that would not that I should reign 
over them, and slay them before me.” The mortal bodies of 
the righteous have now put on immortality, and whatever is 
comprehended in that word the wicked have no share. This 
will be seen by examining those passages in which it is used. 
First Tim. i, 17: “Now, unto the king, eternal, immortal , 
invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and 
ever, which, in his time, shall show who is the blessed and 
only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, who 
only hath immortality , dwelling in the light.” “But is now 
made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, 
who hath abolished death and brought life and immortality 
to light by the gospel.” “By patient continuance in well 
doing, we seek for glory, honor, immortality, eternal life.” 

From these passages, and they are the only ones where this 
word is used in the Bible, we learn that immortality means 
something which belongs exclusively and essentially to the 
eternal God, and that the gospel not only brings this truth to 
light, by showing the error of the heathen doctrine of natural 
immortality, and upon whom, and on what conditions, he pro¬ 
poses to confer it. It is something after which Paul and the 
saints sought, and the following passage shows when it is to 
be conferred : “But if the spirit of him that raised up Christ 
from the dead dwell in you, the spirit of him that raised up 
Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies 
by his spirit that dwelletk in you.” Here we see that it 
relates to Christ and his saints, and to the resurrection, when 
47 


370 


The Philosophy of 


tlieir mortal bodies put on immortality, just as the body of 
Christ did by being raised from the dead by the “ glory of 
the Father.” 

There are three classes which succeed each other in the 
order of the resurrection. First Cor. xv : “ But now is Christ 
risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that 
slept, for since by man came death, by man came also the 
resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in 
Christ shall all be made alive, but every man in his own order, 
Christ, the first fruits, afterward, they that are Christ’s at his 
coming. Behold, I show you a mystery: we shall not all 
sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twink¬ 
ling of an eye, at the last trump (it is not by any slow pro¬ 
cess of nature), for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall 
be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed, for this cor¬ 
ruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must 
put on immortality; so when this corruptible shall have put 
on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immor¬ 
tality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 
Death is swallowed up in victory; O, death where is thy sting, 
0, grave where is thy victory?” These classes are: First, 
Christ himself; second, his saints ; third, the wicked. It will 
be observed that, in all the passages relating to the resurrec¬ 
tion of the wicked, they are mentioned last. It will also be 
observed that the resurrection of all the wicked is here clearly 
taught. 

We wish to call special attention to this argument, in order 
to refute the idea which some are teaching at the present day, 
that the wicked are not to be raised from the dead at all. 
This argument may be thus stated: “By man (Adam) came 
death, so by man (Christ) came the resurrection of the dead, 
for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made 
alive.” Those who are here said to be raised do not em¬ 
brace all the subjects of the resurrection. It does not Christ 
himself, only those who are in Him, but as Christ died in 
Adam, that is, became subject to that death from which he 
had his resurrection, just as all the race did, therefore, all 


God and the World. 


371 


those who thus die in Adam are made alive in Christ, which 
embraces all who have died in the faith of Jesus, and those 
who are not in him, and therefore not thus made alive in 
him, but who are, nevertheless, made alive by Him, and 
these are all the wicked: “Marvel not at this, for the hour 
is coming in which all that are in their graves shall hear the 
voice of the Son of God, and come forth, they that have 
done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have 
done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.” Here we see 
that all who die in Adam and are in their graves, are raised 
by Christ from the dead, with the exception of himself, who 
was thus raised by the Father. 

Now, if none but the righteous are to be raised from the 
dead, it follows that none others died in Adam, and if they 
did not die in Adam, then there is no reason why they should 
have suffered, or have been born susceptible of the suffering 
of death at all, for death only entered into the world in con¬ 
sequence of the sin of Adam, but as death thus passed upon 
all men, “for in Adam all die,” therefore all the race are to 
be made alive by Christ, the Second Adam. 

In regard to a partial resurrection, we will state here that a 
number of years ago we published a theory, that those who 
never heard the gospel could not be rewarded or punished, 
and therefore were not candidates for the resurrection. Since 
then others are contending that none of the wicked are to be 
raised. But by studying the scriptures more, and we think 
understanding them better, we are fully convinced that both 
of these ideas are untrue, and it seems to us that those who 
teach the non-resurrection of the wicked, strengthen and 
encourage them to continue such, by removing the powerful 
motive addressed to their fears with which the Bible abounds, 
of a coming judgment, and which requires the most adroit 
wresting of the scriptures and deceitful handling of the word 
of God, even to make it appear the least plausible, in fact the 
sentiment is in the most palpable contrast to that taught by 
Jesus and Paul, and indeed to those taught by every man 
God ever inspired to write his mind to the world. The argu- 


The Philosophy of 


372 

ment we are here advancing is a most perfect refutation of the 
idea of the non-resurrection of the wicked, that “ as in Adam 
all die .” And this includes the whole race, even so “in 
Christ shall all be made alive it matters not in what that 
death is made to consist, or whether each member of the race 
only dies thus by making Adam’s sin his own, by the com¬ 
mitment of a similar voluntary act of disobedience, he dies 
nevertheless in Adam ; this is the first death, and all who die 
thus come forth from their graves to reap the harvest of cor¬ 
ruption ; “this is the second deaththose only are exempt 
from this punishment whose names are written in the Lamb’s 
book of life.” 


A- Selection. From 


“VOIOES FROM PARADISE.” 


The trump of God ’mid air had 
Sounded — sounded long, piercing and loud — 
’Till every ear distinctly heard, of all the 
Saints, living or dead. To the good ’t was 
Heavenly music ; sweet, holy melody, as if 
An angel spoke ; while to the wicked its 
Intonations deep were harsh, dread and thundery. 
Every monument, or heaven-kissing tower, 
Marking the sacred ashes of a sleeping saint, 
Though inanimate, heard its blasts, toppled 
O’er and fell, as if smitten by some wild orb : 
They from beneath came forth. As I beheld, 

Lo ! the bones, symmetrically forming, came 
Together ; the dust and ashes that once did 
Live and die, did live again: now, with 
Noise, not of confusion, but of re-creative skill 
And harmony, the beautiful joints united, 

Bound by ligaments sinuously, and on every 
Part the youthful flesh formed smoothly, 



God and the World . 


373 


Rapidly and fair; and the skin overlaid 
All with beauty ; and now, as ne’er before, 

Was seen “ the human face divine.” But all 
Were lifeless still, and breathed not; were 
Scattered over land and sea, being 
“ Born a nation in a day ” —beauteous forms 
For immortality, and residence with God. 

How came the spirit power, 

Breath of God, borne on heaven’s four winds, 
Rushing o’er land and sea, when, instantly, 

As in the twinkling of an eye, each within 
Them felt the vital throbs of God ; they 
i £ Rose and stood upon their feet, an exceeding 
Great army.” Ears unstopped, eyes with 
Sparkling beauty shone, cheeks aglow with 
Youthful vigor, flushed with ruddy tint 
And deathless hue. 

From the margin of the sea 
I looked. Lo ! and behold, what wonders now 
Appeared ! walking erect, on each long, swelling 
Wave that rose, were seen in endless ranks, 

Men, women and little children ; not with 
Hurried step, as fear impels, but serene and 
Calm, as on the great highways they trod 
The rolling billows. God in white robes 
Had dressed them. How, not one remained 
Upon the sea, and the shore was lined with 
God’s immortals ; and O ! what raptured 
Meetings were there! the mother found her 
Children, and the cherub-babe—with it 
In her arms, she sank in death-lock. Sons 
And fathers met and kissed, who, an hundred 
Years before, went down the fathomless 
Abyss of old ocean, which, ’ till now, had 
Hever found her conqueror. Husbands and 
Wives came rushing to embrace. Brothers 
In their arms clasped each other, weeping 
With holy joy, parted since the foundering 
Ship aflame w'ent down. 

But others for their kindred looked, and 


374 


The Philosophy of 


Looked in vain. One lady inquired, and 
Searched diligently, for her husband and 
Only daughter, who, with her, on shipboard 
Once sank ; but searched in vain. In resurrection 
The saints had short advance in time. 

A mother among the immortals for her only 
Daughter searched, but searched in vain ; 

With the faithless still she slept. Along the 
Banks a loving daughter for her father 
Searched, for whom she prayed ; but it 
Were vain ; the greedy sea held him with 
The wicked dead, as her lawful prey, 

Still lifeless within her deadly grasp. 

A concourse vast of little 
Children orphaned were there, who, when 
They had died, were old enough to know 
Their parents ; now for them they searched, 

But all in vain ; the yawning ocean, still 
Tenacious of her power, held them, only to 
Be yielded up, in the after resurrection, to 
Shame and everlasting contempt. But, 

To these little ones, were the whole saintly 
Company fathers and loving mothers. 

Children of the antediluveans were there, 

A mighty host; but parents none. 

So had they walked the waters as, upon 
The sea of Galilee, with Peter, walked the 
Great Maker and Lord of Nature’s laws : 
Gravitation suspending, so now its pressure 
Rose, by the same will, from off His saints, 

Who upon the ocean’s moving bosom 
Serenely, and with intrepid step, walked 
To shore. Not one was left; no cavern so 
Deeply dug, that had not heard the voice 
Of God, and yielded up its prey. Now, 

Without surprise, in calm and sweet 
Composure, all stood upon the land, 

Waiting the coming of events. 

But now, the resurrection of the wicked 
Came. First from the ocean they awoke, 


God and the World. 


375 


With natures not as the righteous, but with 
Features dismal, disordered forms ; every 
Countenance was pale, haggard and ghastly, 

Just as they looked in death— Hwas death 
Itself; righteous recompense, eternal wages of sin. 
The sea seemed disgusted with her inhabitants, 
And with her winds and surging waves cast 
Them forth, hideous, dead, and washed to land ; 
And now they lined the shore, where, but late, , 
The righteous stood prodigious multitude; 

Heaps upon heaps, unclad, were piled, 

Men, women and children ; not little ones, 

But who in the world had been old 
Enough to know the will of God, as that 
Of parents, and refused to do it. Yet without 
Life they lay, reformed organisms, by 
God’s severe command, and arbitrary 
Power ; now, by the same, were made to live. 
Animate, but not by living, loving contact 
With God’s immortal spirit, but by infusion 
Of common air ; so in harmony with the 
Laws of life were made remade, that contact 
With the air, whose pressure their lungs 
Inflated, was all they needed in bringing them 
To life ; they breathed, awoke, and walked. 

Mighty concourse ! the bad of all ages, from 
Eve to the last sinner that lived, were there. 

Some upon the sandy beach walked, lamenting 
Their sad fate ; some up the bold shore climbed 
The ragged rocks ; some, terror-struck, fled 
In wild dismay, seeking shelter from the 
Gathering storm —fearing yet “the wrath to 
Come ; ” for well they knew what these sad 
Scenes betokened ; full well they knew the 
Day of fearful reckoning to them had come. 

All the instincts of time and being pointed to 
This, and roused their fears, to preparation 
Make ; yet had they delayed ; and what gave 
It point, and sting, was, it could not altered 
Be ; no means availed to change the destiny. 


376 


The Philosophy of 


Godly sorrow, meet for true repentance, gone, 

Men could not repent. Intercession only 
Grounds of mercy, ended, men could only 
Deprecate ; could not hope, or pray ; all was lost. 

The graves upon the land had felt the 

Mighty impulse of the trump of God, thundering 

Fearfully through every grave, or secret cavern, 

Where slept a sinner ; tombs, monuments, 

Catacombs, towering pyramids, toppling o’er, 
Uncovering the captive dead, who now, by 
Access to common air, started into life — not 
Life immortal; this alone the inheritance of 
Saints: not of incorruption ; this, too, is theirs: 

Not of power; but weakness. Not to honor came 
They forth, but to shame, and contempt everlasting ; 
Not to eternal life, but death — “ the second death.” 
Their bodies, not spiritual, but natural, as 
Such still, as once, susceptible of sorrow, pain, 

And all the ills of sickly, corrupt being. To the 
Flesh had they sown in life ; now, the sad 
Harvest of corruption reaped ; corruption, 

Mental, moral, physical — disorder all, and 

All incurable. Not with eternal youth were 

They endowed ; but cursed with decrepid 

Old age, just as they had died, and growing 

Older still. Not an “ infant of days,” as the righteous 

E’er remained, but as “ sinners, dying now, of 

A hundred years, perished ” — “ perished in their 

Own corruption.” Fearful harvest! O, let me not 

Heap, than this to be the end ! better had they 

Not been born ! better had they slept 

An eternal sleep ! but, since men live, they have 

No choice, or chance, to escape the destiny of 

Being, or penalties of the law they break ; ’ t is the 

Sad reward ; they themselves “ treasured to themselves, 

Though it were wrath against the day of wrath ; ” 

Day which now, alas ! had dawned. 

“ The sea gave up the dead which were in it, 

Death and hell delivered up the dead which were 
In them, and they were judged out of the things 


God and the World. 


377 


Written in the books (not the Book of Life), 

Every man according to his works.’’ 

From these I turned into the city, in time to 
Witness the effects of the joyous mandate 
Thrillingly issued to the harvest angels, Go ! go ! 
Quickly, ye ministers of mine; “the time is come 
For ye to reap the ripened, saintly harvest, 
Quickly gather ; “make ye up my jewels ; ” this 
Is the day of their deliverance ; read, with your 
Flaming eye, man’s inward nature ; take none 
But those who bear the impress of the Son of 
Man ; who, in the life now ended, had borne 
The cross, and with Him suffered ; they with 
Him alone shall reign. Empty now their 
Mansions ; bring them quickly, to adorn these 
Eoyal palaces, enthroned, coronated, in triumph 
Bear them hence ! Go down, ye mighty ones! 
Garner the wheat of my great harvest. 

How the massive gates with golden hinges 
Swung wide for their reception, soon to come, 
Revealing ethereal scenes within. 

These, too, had but just left their cemeteries, 
Church-yards, private graves, at the last 
Joyful trumpet’s sounding. Some, when first 
Awoke, looked round for their fellow-martyrs, 

The stake, to which they had been bound for 
Burning ; for their persecutors looked ; looked 
For the flaming fagots, which seemed but 
A moment since were kindled as their funeral pile. 
One finished the sentence cut short by death’s 
Unconscious sleep. One loving mother held out 
Her hand to bless her children, whom still 
She fancied stood beside her dying couch. 

E’en to all, so far as bodily consciousness went, 

It seemed as though they just had died, the 
Eyes, but a moment before, had closed in 
Ghastly death ; now, with inward-beaming 
Glory opened, to close no more ; no long and 
Dreary purgatory of hope deferred had they 
Suffered. How, on speediest wing, a legion 
48 


378 


The Philosophy of 


Of angels came for these; through every street, 

Every lane of the city they ran ; ran upon the 
Walls, climbed every dwelling where lived a 
Saint, whose names were found recorded in 
Life’s fair book they bore. Before this mighty 
Troop of God, “all faces of the wicked turned pale ;” 
Even “gathered blackness ; ” the circulating blood 
With fear stagnated in the living veins. 

’ T was night; the sun had set in oriental 
Splendor ; set, so to rise no more ; her next 
Dawn was upon the day of judgment. O, 

What a night! what a morn ! what a day ! was 
That! as, when eclipsed, her shining face was 
Hid: a day of darkness, and of fitful gloom, as 
Early morning spreads upon the mountain’s 
Brow. ‘ ‘A great people and a strong had gathered, 
Such as had not been the like ; God’s mighty 
Ones from heaven had come down: each 
Tenement, high or low, was entered, by their 
Lord commanded the work to do. ‘ Go, gather 
My saints together unto me.’ ” 

One stood before a palace-gate of iron ; bolts and 
Bars, without a touch, gave way ; wide swung 
Its leaves ; the guards, with armor fierce, and 
Courage to cope with any human kind, at 
One angelic glance, in dread dismay fell, 

Paralytic, as if with death were smote. Then, 

Quick within her banquet halls the flaming 
Herald stood of heaven’s dispatch — the music, 
Sprightly dance, the wild and giddy laugh, were 
Hushed to painful stillness, such as the grave 
Emits—with his lightning eye glanced quickly 
Round the room, through all the halls of splendor; 

On each assembled at the royal banquet fixed 
His gaze, reading the inward being ; for all 
Men have within the impress deep, living imagery, 

That memory makes, that circumstance, or time, 
Cannot efface, of every act, intent, or thought, of what 
Is past, with present purposes, making human 
Character a vast photographic gallery, on whose 


Gob and the World. 


379 


Mental, polished plates, stand the living tableau, 

By God prepared for their reception, making np 
The history of mortal life, to be known by Him 
Who has the power to read more certainly than 
Outward acts reveal. How, every countenance 
Changed from mirthful glee to ashy paleness ; 

Hot a word was spoken. 

In one secluded apartment, richer adorned than 
Others, sat the lady-queen; a lovely babe on 
Her bosom nestled, princess royal of an 
Earthly kingdom, but to be one of a higher; a 
Queen of heaven’s royalty. The angel grasped 
The child — to it the mother clung, shrieked, and 
Fainted—’twas the only one from all that circle 
Taken: the king-father, retaining still something 
Of his “vain glory,” his gold, his crown, his kingdom 
Offered, to ransom the little innocent; receiving 
In response, with the severity of God, whose 
Representative he was, the angel’s indignant 
Frown. Ho ! the value of a world can no more 
Buy from God a saint than it can make him such. 
How, with the infant-jewel, went he out; none 
Followed, for well they knew ’twas vain; these 
Were left for other disposition. 

Another within a marriage circle stood; the 
Guests were all assembled in rich and beauteous 
Array. The minister of grace, himself among 
The left, a mere formalist, had just pronounced 
The ceremony of holy wedlock; yet in sweetest 
Grasp the hand of bride and groom were joined. 

The angel the other of the bride seized, 

Instantly thrilling her with holy joy, as far above 
That she had before, as heaven than earth is 
Higher. Her rapt soul turned instinctively 
Toward the lovely stranger, as men to higher 
Joys incline, and left the bridegroom—who 
Had no heart to go, because no fitness — 

According to the eternal law of union, her 
Heavenly guide to follow. 

At first, her husband held her as with the 


380 


The Philosophy of 


Grasp of death; but by the slightest angelic 
Touch, the hand, the arm, paralyzed, was dead. 

Father, mother, brothers, sisters and kindred 
All beheld the awful scene, 

None asking what it might mean — 

Knowing full well the last great day had come, 

And this its work; remembering, though now 

Too late, the timely warning the great Judge 

Had given, that this, His coming, was to be like 

The flood of Noah: “ They were eating, drinking, 

Marrying, and in marriage given, till the day 

Into the ark he entered, whom the flood took all away.’ 

In another house, two in the same bed were 

Sleeping, husband and wife ; he by angelic 

Touch, awoke, and, with his little ones, were 

Taken ; but the godless wife and mother alone 

Was left, never again their loved faces to behold. 

At early dawn, two women (sisters) wrought 
Side by side within the mill; one, while the 
Other beheld, was hurried out, as Lot from 
Sodom, ere the consuming fires fell; the 
Other left, her worldliness to mourn. 

Before the time of rising sun on that dread morn, 

Two brothers in the same field wrought; one 
Was taken, the other left; where, need not be 
Asked : but as instinct draws the hungry eagles, 
Though fearful of the place, to the carcass dead, 

So will the race of man be drawn — though 
Knowing well their doom — before the great 
White throne, their sentence to receive. 

From some families the sisters were taken, 

Brothers left; others, father taken, mother left; 

Parents from some, sons and daughters left; 

Some of these last were amiable — e’ en professed 
To be religious ; but lovers of pleasure more : 

So lovely, that almost made the angel weep, 

As did Jesus o’er Jerusalem : when he took 
The other members of the family, now they 
W rithed in anguish, smote their breasts, 

Tore their shriveled hair, 

And screamed in mad despair. 


God and the World . 


381 


Now, earnestly they prayed ; but only heard 
The stern response, “Too late ; too late.” 

Other places, of less repute, these angels entered 
Not; for well they knew no candidates for 
Christ’s great kingdom were there. Drinking 
Saloons, thronged with inmates ; they who 
Kept, committing slow, but certain murder, 

And the crazed victims, suicide ; awful day 
For these ! gambling places, from which men 
Go to suicide, and hell; halls of dancing, and 
Giddy mirth, which should be spent in prayer, 

Stole away the life from God ; alas ! what 
Loss ! Theaters, too, that vitiate the soul, fitting 
It for downward flight — all resorts of pleasure- 
Lovers, more than God, were passed by. 

That night, their visitors, paying devotions 
At these godless shrines they themselves had 
Made to worship, stayed late, all unaware 
The righteous had been gathered, till, entering 
Their homes, some lovely member of the family 
Was missed—a parent who had opposed his 
Children’s worldly loves ; but most likely 
Some little innocent was gone ; all the others 
Left, lamenting in sad despair. 

Now, every house where dwelt a saint, in 
Every city, village, hamlet, sequestered 
Yale, o’er all the earth, by God’s angels was 
Searched ; between the good and bad, the 
Separation finished ; these, to meet no more, 

Had parted ; and now began the voice of World- 
Wide lamentation, mourning and woe. “ Then 
Shall all the tribes of the earth mourn.” No 
Heavenly impulse swelled their bosom; they mourned — 
It was not godly sorrow, but that they now 
Received the wages due their work ; dreadful 
Wages ! they would it had remained 
Unpaid. This was “ death,” justly, mercifully 
Awarded: the one they trod beneath their 
Feet, the other coolly slighted, as though it 
Were nothing worth ; now, according to the one, 

They lost the other. 


382 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER XLIV. 

OBJECTIONS TO THE RESURRECTION CONSIDERED. 

In concluding this subject, we propose to examine the most 
common and formidable objections against the resurrection of 
the dead. The first of these we notice is of a philosophical 
character; this claims that as the bodies of the decomposed 
dead furnish nourishment for the living, who, therefore, being 
possessed of the same particles of matter, it is impossible to 
raise both individuals again to life. It may not be out of 
place here to administer the rebuke one of the propagators 
of this Sadducean philosophy received some time since, who 
made a similar objection to this doctrine. Said the great 
teacher: “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the 
power of God.” They teach that it is the body that dies 
which is to be raised, and not the thousands of pounds of 
decomposed matter thrown off by insensible perspiration, or 
by the physical wear and tear of the system, while carrying 
on the involuntary operations of life, and reproduced from the 
nutriment the food contains taken into the stomach. Another 
of these rebukes, and, perhaps, more pertinent to the objector 
that the body that dies cannot be raised, is this : “ Thou fool, 
that which thou so west is not quickened except it dies,” that 
is, that death is essential to the reproduction of life; and 
may we not with the same propriety carry out the phraseol¬ 
ogy: “Thou fool,” thine error consists in ignorance of the 
power of God ; if thou hadst the most superficial intelligence, 
or the most vague conception of God and his power, thou 
wouldst have known that he who was Almighty and infinite 
in wisdom, and who created man originally, was adequate to 
the performance of any work he had undertaken, that being 
the God of nature’s laws, who had made and applied them 
lor the accomplishment of his purposes, must have kept such 


God and the World. 


383 


a supervision over their operation that they would not so mix 
and confuse the matter composing the bodies of the dead that 
would render their individual resurrection a natural impossi¬ 
bility; thou sliouldst have known that he has so nicely 
arranged these laws in the animal and vegetable departments 
of his works, that in all time they have never manifested 
irregularity enough to have destroyed the identity of a single 
species of animals or vegetables, nor even a single individual 
of those species so as to make them produce a new one, and 
now to suppose he had so superficially considered the neces¬ 
sities this work involves, or that his intelligence and power 
were so limited that those laws applicable to man, as to other 
animals or vegetables, in this respect, should have so far 
mingled and mixed up the component parts of the dead that 
they could not be resurrected, the identical individuals which 
lived and died, is the very acme of absurdity. 

We can no more appropriately address such than in the 
language of Paul, “thou fool” and we leave them with the 
suggestion that it would be well to apply themselves, at least 
superficially, to the study of the great lesson of the uniformity 
of nature’s laws, which means simply God’s manner of carry¬ 
ing out his great purposes with the world and race of man, 
as well as the revelators of this work. But we are here pre¬ 
sented with a fact, and our philosopher reasonably demands 
its solution. A shipwrecked mariner died, in raving mad¬ 
ness, from the effect of drinking salt water. One of his com¬ 
rades in a starving condition immediately seized and ate his 
heart, and who himself, in a few moments was taken with 
convulsions and also died ; now, here was, as it is said, incor¬ 
porated at death, the same particles of matter in the bodies of 
both individuals, therefore, both cannot be raised. In answer 
to this we say, the facts do not warrant the conclusion ; this 
is evident from the fact that although the second man ate the 
heart of the first, yet instead of its being nourishment (and 
unless it was it could not have been incorporated with any 
function of his system) it proved to be poison and killed him 
instantly ; it was poison because it had no chemical affinity 


384 


The Philosophy of 


with liim who took it into his system, and therefore not a 
particle of it became incorporated with the body of the second 
man, who thus died. This idea in various forms and phases 
is paraded with as much assumption and presumption as 
though all our farms and gardens were old graveyards, and 
never needed any more nutriment than they received from the 
decomposed bodies of dead men. But the objection in any 
form rests wholly upon inference, to demonstrate which would 
be as impossible as to raise two dead bodies were they, at 
death, in possession of every atom of matter of which each 
was composed at that event. Is any man possessed of that 
wisdom to qualify him to trace the entire course of a particle 
of matter taken into the human system, through all its rami¬ 
fications, changes of chemical mixture and formation, to say 
that it certainly made a part of two dead bodies ; and chem¬ 
ical analysis could aflbrd him no assistance, because the same 
chemical properties enter alike into vegetables and. animals. 
But we leave this unfounded objection, almost with the regret 
that we have given it much more consideration than it merits. 

But it is also objected to the literal resurrection that, were 
the whole race of man who have ever lived and died to live 
at once, there would not be room enough on the earth’s surface 
for them to stand, and some have gone so far as to declare they 
would cover it four deep. As this objection rests on computa¬ 
tion, its disposition is easy and certain. 

Allowing the age of the world to be six thousand years 
(6,000), and that the whole population have died every thirty 
years, the length of the present generation, and which is 
the shortest of all, six thousand, divided by thirty, gives two 
hundred (200) generations. Now, if we multiply the present 
population of the world, which, according to Mitchell’s geog¬ 
raphy, is one billion eighty-four millions one hundred and 
twenty-nine thousand (1,084,129,000), by two hundred, the 
number of the generations, we have two hundred and sixteen 
billions eight hundred and twenty-five millions eight hundred 
thousands (216,825,800,000). 

The State of New York contains forty-seven thousand one 


God and the World. 


385 


hundred and fifty-six square miles (47,156); multiplying this 
by the number of square feet in a square mile, we have for a pro¬ 
duct one trillion three hundred and fourteen billions six hundred 
and thirty-three millions eight hundred and thirty thousand 
four hundred (1,314,633,830,400) square feet. Now, if we 
divide this number of square feet by the whole number of the 
inhabitants of the world, we have six and one-third (6J) as a 
quotient; therefore the State of New York will furnish not 
only standing room to accommodate the whole race, were they 
all to live at once, but enough to bury the race, giving each 
member 6^ square feet. 

In coming to this conclusion we have taken the largest pop¬ 
ulation ever claimed for a generation, and it must also be 
remembered that the race began twice from a pair, which 
would greatly diminish the whole number. 

By this calculation we see the absurdity of the objection 
that the whole earth would not hold the people who live, and 
who have lived and died, were they all to live at once. 

The resurrection saints are not only men and women as 
really as before death, but we have every reason to believe they 
are the same in size, weight, tangibility and identical peculiarity 
with the exception of deformity, the only difference being in 
the unseen vitalization of their nature, possessing no more a 
temporal existence upon which death works dissolution, but 
like that of the angels, one of unchanging youth, and conse¬ 
quently of eternal duration. An incident occurred at the 
resurrection of Jesus which very strikingly teaches this truth. 
When the two Marys entered the sepulchre they saw “A young 
man sitting, clothed in a white garment.” 

This young man was one of the two angels mentioned by 
the other evangelists, and who were at least four thousand 
years old, for they were among the company who sang the 
anthem of the world’s creation, “ When the stars of the morn¬ 
ing sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy,” 
and yet this one appeared as a young man. Indeed, the two 
ideas of eternal youth and eternal durability imply each other, 
because the least possible effect of physical deterioration 
49 


386 


The Philosophy of 


implies final dissolution, and if this were true of the inhabit¬ 
ants of the new creation, Jesus could not have said “ Neither 
can they die any more.” Although this is to be the substan¬ 
tial nature of the immortal saints, and that their inheritance 
and habitation is to be the new earth, yet we do not believe 
they will necessarily be confined to this locality, or that they 
cannot transport themselves to any other part of the universe, 
any more than that angels, by the eternal laws of nature and 
those of their own being, are thus confined to any one part 
of God’s dominion, and whom we have every reason to believe 
are as substantial beings as the immortal saints. Neither do 
we believe that angels are provided with wings as instruments 
of locomotion. The idea is too low, gross and unphilosophic 
to be admitted, unless it has positive and unqualified scripture 
authority. It is true that the cherubim and seraphim are said 
to have wings, but these, as we have seen, are not angels, but 
peculiar featured symbols, drawn in such shape as was essen¬ 
tial to prefigure the four first periods of the history of the 
church, commencing with the apostles, and which the revelator 
calls ‘ ‘ four beasts.’ ’ (See opening of the seven seals.) Page 292. 

The only expression from which the idea that angels have 
wings may even be inferred is, that they are said to fly. An 
instance of this is recorded in Dan. ix, 21 : “ Yea, while I 

was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had 
seen in the vision, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me 
about the time of the evening oblation.” The idea here 
taught is, simply that of rapidity. Gabriel had been delayed 
in his visit to the prophet by the prince of the kingdom of Per¬ 
sia (see 10th chapter and 13th verse), where the same visit is 
related. This delay was twenty-one days ; but Michael came 
to the help of Gabriel, and now the latter came quickly to 
Daniel and informed him of the fact, as an apology for not 
coming sooner ; thus he was caused to “ fly swiftly ; ” but the 
prophet saw no wings upon Gabriel, or, in all probability, he 
would have classed him with other beings than he did, for, 
says he, “ The man Gabriel whom I saw in the vision.” 

In all those instances of interviews recorded between angels 


God and the World. 


387 


and men, there is not an allusion of their wing endowment, 
but they all show that the angels were so much like men that 
they were mistook for them, which would have been impossi¬ 
ble had they been formed with wings. When Jacob wrestled 
with the angel at Bethel, holding him firmly by the feet and 
would not let him go until he blessed him, such a peculiar 
feature as wings must have been noticed and discovered in the 
narration. The two angels who were sent to hurry Lot out 
of the city of Sodom, and to destroy it, were said to have 
been two men; and Lot gave them water to wash their feet, 
and killed a calf and made ready a supper which they did 
eat; and to further prove that there was no wing formation 
about them, Jude alludes to it thus: “Be not forgetful to 
entertain strangers, for some have thereby entertained angels 
■unawares .” And yet these angels had such power over the 
elements that they had no difficulty in causing the heavens 
to rain fire and brimstone to consume the cities of the plains 
for which God had sent them. 

The angels, also, which the Marys saw in the sepulchre, 
and whom they called young men, could not have had wings 
and they not have observed and mentioned them, and even 
those disciples who knew and declared that they were angels, 
yet make no allusion to their having wings. And then there 
are those who were sent as an escort to the risen Jesus, as he 
ascended to his Father’s throne, they had no wings. The dec¬ 
laration is, that they were “two men in shining apparel ,” 
which is peculiarly noted, but nothing said about wings, and 
surely Jesus had no wings, nor were they necessary for his 
ascension. He was the God, and maker of nature’s laws, and 
on that occasion reversed the laws of gravity and atmospheric 
pressure, and so arranged them, by his wisdom and will, that 
they impelled him in his upward flight, and thus Jesus easily 
and majestically ascended up into heaven. Here is the prin¬ 
ciple, .not only of his ascension, but also of that of angels and 
saints between all localities and worlds in the vast universe of 
Jehovah. All power is mental, and is the principle upon 
which God creates and controls worlds, and, therefore, all 


388 


The Philosophy of 


that is necessary for angels or immortal saints to do, in order 
to traverse the dominion of God, is to have a knowledge of 
the laws of gravity and atmospheric pressure to a degree that 
enables them, by an act of will, to reverse and control them 
for their own convenience. Would it not be strange if angels, 
who have lived six thousand years, had not learned the laws 
Of natural pressure sufficiently to be enabled to thus take the 
advantage of them in order to subserve their purpose of trans¬ 
port between localities and worlds % Had men lived from the 
days of Adam to the present, is it not reasonable to suppose 
that they would at least have learned the lesson inculcated in 
the original injunction, not only to multiply and replenish 
the earth, but “"to subdue it,” by this time to have made all 
its elements subserve his purposes, at least in the immortal 
state or world \ Will not the saints learn how to subdue the 
laws of gravity and etherial pressure, to meet the demands of 
their being ; and this is all that is necessary to enable them, 
not only to ascend and descend, but to move through space in 
any desirable direction: simply reduce the pressure surround¬ 
ing them, which is fifteen pounds to the square inch on every 
side, in one direction, and increase it on the opposite, and they 
may move easily, safely and rapidly anywhere in space ; or 
only throw the gases composing these elements of pressure 
out of equilibrium at pleasure, just as they are being contin¬ 
ually thrown out, by the reciprocation of their own forces, 
and men or angels, without the labor of wing motion, may 
walk the universe of God, in grand explorations of his stu¬ 
pendous works, displaying an intelligent mental power, con¬ 
sonant with such beings, and infinitely more dignified than 
the mere bird-like wing motion. 

This power was also exhibited by Jesus when he walked on 
the waters of the sea of Galilee; he not only threw off the 
atmospheric pressure from his own person, but also from that 
of Peter, whom he rescued from drowning. Thus we have 
God’s philosophy of the future state, having its foundation 
in the resurrection of the dead, presenting “Man all immor¬ 
tal.” “Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is 


God and the World. 


389 


written, O ! death, where is thy sting ? 0! grave, where is thy 
victory ? previous to which sin and death reigned, subjecting 
all their life-time the saints of God to fear, but now, so far as 
they are concerned, are vanquished enemies, and all the saints 
have turned their eyes forever from the dark and ruinable 
tombs of time to bask amid scenes of life and Paradisiacal 
beauty, having a right to enter in through the gates into the 
golden city of the New Jerusalem, but from which the 
wicked are forever excluded, that being incorruptible, into 
which nothing that is unclean can ever enter; they being cor¬ 
rupt, and as “corruption cannot inherit incorruption,” there¬ 
fore from the kingdom of God are they forever excluded, 
and that, too, upon the antagonistic principles of their own 
nature. 6 ‘ They had sown (in life) to the flesh, and now of 
it they reap the natural harvest of corruption.” 


390 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER XLV. 

THE INHERITANCE OF THE SAINTS — THE NEW EARTH DEEDED 
TO ABRAHAM AND HIS SEED. 

It is no more true that words are the signs of ideas, than 
that they are often employed as significant only of their 
absence. There is, perhaps, no example of this more striking 
than the word u immateriality,when used to express the 
kind of existence possessed by the inhabitants of the future 
world. The error is the supposition that a being, possessed 
of any modification of matter, must be susceptible of corrup¬ 
tion, decay and death, and hence a fancied existence is 
assumed which, in the nature of things, is impossible, admit¬ 
ting of no rational ideas or tangible conception, and forthwith 
the vocabulary is searched for terms to conceal this ignorance, 
and, when found and used, and especially by the reputably 
learned, the promiscuous crowd receive the mystery as ema¬ 
nating from a profound depth of intellectuality, awarding to 
such minds a power to see and understand that which to them 
is utterly incomprehensible, but which is to such a most fear¬ 
fully prolific source of doubt and skepticism. 

Dick’s Philosophy of a Future State is a forcible illustra¬ 
tion of this practice. 

That he proves, and even demonstrates, from the nature and 
existence of things, that there is a future destiny for man, 
cannot be questioned ; but, failing to comprehend the immor¬ 
tality of physical, material being, he naturally runs into the 
error of supposing the opposite of this to be possible, and, 
therefore, confounds immortality with immateriality, the 
absurdity of which is seen in the philosophic truth that 
immateriality, being the opposite of matter, is absolutely 
nothing, and as nothing cannot corrupt, decay or die, there¬ 
fore, it is immortal, which, however, is nothing else than an 
immortal nothing. 


God and the World. 


391 


These fancied existencies being incapable of occupying 
space, which requires some modification of matter to do, not 
only need no location but cannot have one ; and not only so, 
but to be in a happy or miserable state of mind, presupposes 
the existence of a being possessed of intellect and moral 
powers, and that these are mere exercises of those powers, 
and no more the powers themselves, or the beings possessing 
them, than that thought is mind or feeling the faculty which 
produces it. 

The philosophy and manifestation of these relations, 
whether applied to beings of time or eternity, is founded 
upon the presumption that moral, intellectual and material 
beings exist, and, therefore, that they occupy space, and in 
it have a location, the opposite of which is, that they are 
immaterial, occupying no space, and, consequently, have no 
location in the universe of God, which doctrine, if true, anni¬ 
hilates them. 

One of these views we have shown to be heathenism, while 
the other is Christianity. The former rests upon the unphilo- 
sophic notion, as paradoxical as it may seem, of the existence 
of non-existence, and, as far as the human mind is capable 
of comprehending, is the doctrine of absolute annihilation, 
while the latter is the true philosopy of existence and of 
being. No, we turn with gladsome delight from such obliv¬ 
ious confusion to the contemplation of the great truth, 
revealed alike in the harmony of nature, the scriptures, 
and the God-bestowed endowments of man’s own nature; 
the latter demanding just such a condition of being and 
place of habitation as the former proposes for man’s eternal 
abode. 

The conclusion to which these “so-called philosophies” 
lead is to seize another of those words which serve to cover 
error, and declares its future to be a state , and not a place, 
just as though one of these terms, when thus employed, did 
not imply the other. If it is a territorial state, and has 
inhabitants, they must be, as we have seen, material beings; 
or if it is a mental state, then its inhabitants must not only 


392 


The Philosophy of 


be organic beings, endowed with mind, as its state is only 
that condition in which it can exist, and the state can no 
more exist without the mind, nor the mind without the 
organism, than an effect can exist without an adequate cause 
to produce it; or if such a state is a mere moral one, it neces¬ 
sitates the prior existence, not only of moral faculties, but 
equally of those of a physical and mental nature, because 
feeling, thought, life and motion are but emanations of such 
organic being. 

This presents not only the philosophy of man’s eternal 
being in the future world, but every element of it is the sub¬ 
ject of direct revelation from God, as we shall now proceed 
to show. 

As the bodies of the saints subsequent to the resurrection 
are real and substantial, it follows that the place of their 
abode must also be such. The question, therefore, is, what is 
the nature and locality of the inheritance God has promised 
to his saints as their eternal reward and dwelling-place ? The 
position we assume in regard to this subject is, that it is this 
very earth on which we live which is to be the eternal reward 
of the saints, and the endless abode of God, angels and the 
resurrected and immortal saints, after all its elements have 
been reduced to a second chaos, and recreated into “the new 
heavens and the new earth,” and there is not the slightest 
authority for locating it anywhere else in the universe. 

We shall see that this question is just as clearly answered 
in the “scriptures,” as that of the resurrection itself. That 
no mistake may be made in regard to this important subject, 
we propose to go back and examine the original deed and 
covenant God made with Abraham, who was the first man 
to whom any definite information was communicated concern¬ 
ing it, and with whom two distinct covenants were made, one 
relating to the nationality of the Jews, the other to the saints 
of aril ages—the children of faith, of whom Abraham is styled 
“the father,”—the last being fulfilled when all these are 
redeemed and introduced into the immortal kingdom of God, 
or the new heavens and new earth. There are two classes of 


God and the World . 


393 


events growing out of the two covenants, and, indeed, insep¬ 
arably connected with their fulfillment, namely: Two cove¬ 
nants ; two Jerusalems, the old and new; two worlds, the 
present “and that which is to come;” two lives, temporal and 
eternal; two births, one introductory to the present life, and 
the “new birth,” which, when fully consummated, includes 
the bestowment of life eternal; two heavens and earths ; two 
deaths, first and second; two Adams, first and second; two 
resurrections, first and second. The first revelation of this 
inheritance, and heirship to it, was made to the patriarch 
Abraham, about two thousand years before the Christian era. 
In quoting the conversations which took place between God 
and Abraham there will be some repetition, but, as there are 
additional features of instruction introduced at each inter¬ 
view, it is necessary to transcribe the whole of* the passages. 
Gen. xii, 1: “God appeared to Abraham and said, Get thee 
out of thy country (this was Ur of the Chaldees) and from 
thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I 
will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I 
will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a 
blessing; and I will bless them that blesseth thee, and curse 
them that curseth thee, and in thee shall families of the earth 
be blessed.” Here are two distinct promises made, first, that 
God would make of Abraham “a great nation,” and sec¬ 
ondly, that in him were all the families of the earth to be 
blessed. “And the Lord said unto Abraham, after that Lot 
was parted from him, Lift up now thine eyes and look from 
the place where thou art northward and southward, eastward 
and westward, for all the land which thou seest to thee will I 
give it, and to thy seed forever ; and I will make thy seed as 
the dust of the earth, so that if thou canst number the dust of 
the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered; arise, walk 
through the land, in the breadth of it and in the length of it, 
for I will give it unto thee.” There are three points here 
which we wish more particularly to be kept in mind: first, 
that this promise embraces land; second, that it was to be 
possessed by Abraham and his seed conjointly ; and thirdly, 
50 


394 The Philosophy of 

that those who were to inherit it were to be an innumerable 
company. 

“ And Melchisedec, king of Salem, brought forth bread and 
wine, and he was priest of the Most High God, and he blessed 
him, and said blessed be Abraham of the Most High God, 
possessor of heaven and earth.” Abraham is here declared 
to be possessor of heaven and earth, and which we shall see 
means the new heavens and the new earth, which succeeds the 
conflagration of this. “When the sun was gone down, and 
it was dark, behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp 
that passed between those pieces, and in the same day God 
made a covenant with Abraham saying, unto thy seed have I 
given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river 
Euphrates. Here is the first covenant made with Abraham 
and formally ratified according to the custom in the east, and 
the boundaries of the land defined, including all from the 
Nile to the Euphrates, the ancient geographical dimensions 
of the Jewish empire, and we must take notice that the land 
thus promised was to Abraham’s seed, and did not include 
himself, and, of course, could not, for Abraham had been dead 
for more than four hundred years before his seed, according 
to the flesh, the Hebrews, the Jews from Egyptian bondage, 
took possession of this land. And Abraham said, behold to 
me thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born in my house is 
my heir (referring to Ishmael, his son and seed by Hagar, the 
Egyptian and bondwoman). And behold the word of the 
Lord came, saying, this shall not be thine heir, but he that 
shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.” 
Here is the promise of Sarah’s son Isaac. “ And he brought 
him forth and said, look now toward heaven, and tell the 
stars if thou be able to number them, and he said unto him, 
so shall thy seed be.” Of Abraham’s son Ishmael, the angel 
said unto Hagar, his mother, “he shall be a wild man; his 
hand shall be against every man’s hand and every mau’s 
hand against him, and he shall dwell in the presence of his 
brethren.” Again God appeared unto Abraham and 'said, 
“lam Almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect, 


God and the World. 


395 


and I will make my covenant between me and thee, and I 
will multiply thee exceedingly; and Abraham fell on his face 
and God talked with him saying, as for me behold my cove¬ 
nant is with thee, and thou shall be a father of many 
nations” According to the first covenant God was to make 
of Abraham a great nation, but according to this he was to be 
a father of many nations (the first was to Ishmael), for an 
everlasting covenant and with his seed after him (this seed as 
we shall see was Christ), and as for Ishmael, I have heard 
thee (the patriarch had been praying that God would also 
bless his son Ishmael), and behold, I have blessed him, and 
will make him fruitful and multiply him exceedingly; twelve 
princes also shall he beget, and I will make him a great 
nation; but my covenant will I establish with Isaac.” These 
were the heads of the twelve tribes of the Jewish nation 
through Ishmael, Abraham’s seed according to the flesh, as we 
shall see more fully hereafter. 

“And Sarah saw the son of the Egyptian mocking, where¬ 
upon she said unto Abraham, cast out this bondwoman and 
her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with 
my son, even with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous 
unto Abraham, because of his son; and God said unto him, 
Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and 
because of thy bondwoman, in all that Sarah hath said 
unto thee hearken unto her voice, for in Isaac shall thy seed 
be called ; and also of the son of the bondwoman I will make 
a great nation, because he is thy seed. (Mark, here Ishmael 
is declared to be Abraham’s seed, and was not the founder of 
the Arabian nation.) Then was she and her son cast out, and 
as they wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba she lifted up 
her voice and wept, and the angel of God called her, out of 
heaven, and said unto her, fear not, for God hath heard the 
voice of the lad where he is; arise, lift him up in thine hand, 
for I will make him a great nation.” We have, in these pas¬ 
sages, two distinct covenants, entered into, on the one hand, 
by Almighty God, and on the other by Abraham. The first 
bound God to make of Ishmael, Abraham’s son and seed, a 


396 


The Philosophy of 


great nation , with twelve princes as its founders. The second 
was, that in Isaac, his son and seed, ail families or nations of 
the earth were to be blessed. 

The promises included in this covenant, in contradistinction 
to those of the other, were to be everlasting, and which may 
be summed up as follows: First, that in Isaac all nations were 
to be blessed; that his seed, thus blessed, were to be an innu¬ 
merable company ; that all the land, east, west, north and 
south, called heaven and earth, was to be the everlasting pos¬ 
session of this great multitude, including Abraham himself. 
The fulfillment, therefore, of this covenant will put the resur¬ 
rected saints of all nations in possession of the new heavens 
and the new earth, which is to be re-created from the ashes of 
this present earth, now laboring under the curse. This will 
be simultaneous with the following announcement, made by 
Jesus : Luke xiii— “ And they shall come from the east 
and from the west, from the north and from the south, and 
shall sit down in the kingdom of God ; there shall be weep¬ 
ing and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, Isaac 
and Jacob and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and 
you yourselves (the Jewish nation who had rejected Jesus) 
thrust out.” This thrusting out is the antitype of the casting 
out of the bondwoman and her son. Here Abraham and the 
saints, the saved of all nations, are in possession of the New 
Jerusalem and the kingdom of God, which, according to 
Daniel, is the everlasting kingdom, established under the 
whole heaven. 

With such teaching we are brought at once to understand 
the nature of God’s covenant made with Abraham and of its 
fulfillment. But upon such an important subject we need all 
the instruction the Scriptures afford, and therefore we go on. 
It is recorded that Abraham himself did not inherit the land 
included in this promise, nor any of those things either of 
the covenants contained, while he lived. For the promise 
through Ishmael, that God would make of him a great 
nation, Paul tells us was not accomplished until four hun¬ 
dred and thirty years after it was thus made to Abraham 


God and the World. 


397 


and therefore long after lie was dead. Neither did he receive 
the substance of the promises which were to be established 
in Isaac, if there was no other evidence upon this point than 
the fact that Isaac himself was only an heir while he lived to 
what was thus promised, would be sufficient, because an heir 
cannot be such and a possessor at the same time. He is an 
heir only until he obtains the inheritance, and * that very 
moment his heirship ceases, and it is not only declared that 
Isaac himself was an heir all his life to the inheritance 
promised to Abraham, his father, but that his seed after him 
were also to be only heirs to the inheritance. We here quote 
from the Acts of the Apostles: “And God gave him (Abra¬ 
ham), as well as Isaac and Jacob, liis son and grandson, none 
inheritance in it; no, not so much as to set his foot on; yea, 
he promised to give it to him for a possession and to his seed 
after him, and that Abraham died, not having received the 
fulfillment of the promise.” Also, Heb. 11th: “By faith 
Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which 
he should afterward receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and 
he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he 
sojourned in the land of promise (not of possession) as in a 
strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and 
Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he 
looked for a city which hath foundations (the New Jeru¬ 
salem), whose builder and maker is God. Through faith 
Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was 
delivered of a child when she was passed age, because she 
judged him faithful who had promised; therefore sprang 
there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the 
stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the 
sea shore—innumerable. These all died in faith, not having 
received the promises (or things promised), but having seen 
them afar off * and were persuaded of them, and embraced 
them, and confessed that they were pilgrims on the earth. 
For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a 
country, and truly, if they had been mindful of the country 
from whence they came out, they might have had an opportu- 


398 


The Philosophy of 


nity to have returned; but now they desire a better ^country 
—that is, an heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be 
called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city.’/ 
Jesus explains this by saying, though he is the God of Abra¬ 
ham, Isaac and Jacob, yet he is not their God now, they 
being dead, and he is not the God of the dead, but of the 
living, wherefore Moses thus showed the resurrection of these 
patriarchs at the bush. The faith of these worthies looked to 
the resurrection of the dead as the consummation of their hope 
and for the fulfillment of God’s promises, which puts them 
in possession of the kingdom of God and the mansions Jesus 
has gone to prepare, not only for these, but also for all those 
who have the faith of Abraham. This is the city whose builder 
and maker is God, and to be located in the “ Heavenly coun¬ 
try.” This is what was intended by the address of the King 
of Salem, “ Blessed be Abraham of the Most High God, 
possessor of heaven and earth — the heavenly country for 
which he looked. The world to come, in which they die no 
more.” 

In Paul’s epistle to the Galatians this subject is fully dis¬ 
cussed. The circumstances calling out the letter were, that 
there were some who still desired to be under the Jewish law, 
or that of Moses. “Tell me, says he, ye that desire to be 
under the law, do ye not hear the law ? For it is written that 
Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid and the other 
by a free woman ; but he who was of the bondwoman was 
born after the flesh ; but he who was of the free woman was 
by promise, which things are an allegory; for these are the 
two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, which gendereth to 
bondage, which is Agar, for this Agar is Mount Sinai in Ara¬ 
bia (or symbolized by it), and answereth to Jerusalem, which 
now is, and is in bondage with her children.” It was upon 
Mount Sinai, in the wilderness of Arabia, from which God 
committed the statute law to Moses for the government of the 
Jewish nation. And it was here that he fulfilled his covenant 
with Abraham, which was to come through Ishmael, his son 
and seed by the bondwoman, and of him he was about to 


God and the World. 


399 

make the “ great nation.” When, therefore, God, by the hand 
of Joshua, drove out the seven nations then in possession of 
that land, which he had deeded to Abraham’s seed, according 
to the flesh, four hundred and thirty years before, and who 
had now come to take possession, we say, that when this was 
done and the Jewish theocracy established as it now was, there 
was the fulfillment of God’s promise and covenant with Abra¬ 
ham concerning the Jewish nation, and the Jews themselves, 
and all Judaizing teachers who still look for the fulfillment of 
any covenant engagement in any sense favorable to that peo¬ 
ple, will be disappointed. The idea is founded on an entire 
misapprehension of scripture upon the subject. Jesus struck 
an exterminating blow at this claim of the Jews. On one 
occasion, while he was publicly teaching, the Pharisees said 
to him: “We have Abraham for our father;” but, said 
he, “if Abraham was your father ye would do the works of 
Abraham, but now ye seek to kill me, which did not Abra¬ 
ham.” Being cut off from this claim they said: “We have 
God for our father ; but, said Jesus, if God was your father, 
ye would believe in me, for I came forth from God. Can ja 
not discern my speech ? Ye are of your father, the devil, and 
his works ye will do.” This declaration silenced them, and it 
should forever silence all others who are looking for particular 
favors to come from God to antichrist, “ For every spirit that 
confesseth not that Christ is come in the flesh is antichrist, and 
this has been the sin of all Jews for more than eighteen hun¬ 
dred years. Ishmael was a fit representative of the Jewish 
nation. He was a bondman; and they were under a law that 
gendered to bondage, its voice was, “Cursed in every one that 
continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the 
law, to do them and from which they refused to have Christ 
set them free. Another striking characteristic of Ishmael 
forcibly symbolizes a prominent trait in the disposition of the 
Jews. God said, “ His hand should be against every man’s 
hand, and every man’s hand against him.” How completely 
has this been exhibited in the whole history of the Jewish 
nation. In their estimation all other nations and people are 


400 


The Philosophy of 


mere dogs and castaways, and Paul says of them, “They are 
contrary unto all men.” Their hand thus being turned against 
every man’s hand, it is but human nature that every man’s 
hand should in self-defense be turned against them, the verifi¬ 
cation of which is shown by the fact that all nations have in 
turn hated and persecuted them, not, however, for righteous¬ 
ness sake. 

“Ishmael was also a wild man,” and how strikingly have 
the Jews exhibited this wildness of character. Behold them 
under the burning brow of Sinai, on whose summit was heard 
the voice of God amid alarming trumpets, waxing louder and 
louder, accompanied with thunders and lightnings, and the 
terrific shaking of the mountain; but in view of this awful 
exhibition which led Moses to exclaim, “I exceedingly fear 
and quake,” what do we behold? But Aaron, the brother of 
the man of God, whom he had chosen to conduct this people 
from Egyptian bondage into a land flowing with milk and 
honey, collecting all the jewels from the multitude, and 
moulding them into a golden calf, and then, with a ferocious 
audacity, becoming none but wild men, shouting the idola¬ 
trous song: “These be thy gods, O Israel, that brought thee 
up out of the land of Egypt.” Thus, though hedged around 
by Jehovah himself, did they madly break over all bounds. 
How appropriately does a wild man symbolize such a people. 
Behold them again when their great deliverer, the antitype of 
Moses, appeared, ready to deliver them from the bondage of 
corruption, and translate them into the glorious liberty of the 
children of God. At Pilate’s judgment hall, like so many 
wild savages clamoring furiously for his blood, “give us our 
own Barabbas, but away with Jesus, he is not fit to live,” — 
wild indeed! But again we recur to Paul’s exposition: 
“But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother 
of us all; for it is written, rejoice thou barren that barest 
not; break forth and cry thou that travailest not, for the 
desolate hath many more children than she which hath an 
husband. How we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children 
of promise; but as then, he that was born after the flesh 


God and the World. 


401 

(Islimael) persecuted him that was born after the spirit 
(Isaac), even so it is now.” This refers to Ishmael’s tanta¬ 
lizing mocking of Sarah, Abraham’s wife, in reference to 
Isaac, who was to be born according to promise. How, also, 
did the Jews mock Jesus; passing by, wagging their heads, 
exclaiming: “He saved others, himself he cannot save.” 
Nevertheless, what saith the scriptures : “Cast out this bond- 
woman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall 
not be heir with my son, even with Isaac, which was of 
the free woman. So then, brethren, we are not the children 
of the bondwoman, but of the free; stand fast, therefore, in 
the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free; and be not 
entangled again in the yoke of bondage.” 

Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made; he 
saith not unto seeds as of many, but as of one , and to thy 
seed which is Christ. Here we see that the promises made 
to Abraham, through Isaac, meant Christ, and therefore it 
was in him all nations were to be blessed, and as the seed of 
Abraham, Christ was to inherit the promises, and of course is 
the heir to all those included in the new covenant. This is 
summed up in one sentence, or verse, Rom. iv, IB. For the 
promise that he should be heir of the world , was not to 
Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the 
righteousness of faith. Of course this is the world to come. 
This view is confirmed by the parable of the vineyard, which 
was let out to certain husbandmen, to whom various classes 
of servants had been sent, at the season for gathering the fruit, 
by the Lord of the vineyard, but who were all shamefully 
beaten ; finally the proprietor said, I will send my son, it may 
be they will reverence him when they see him ; but when they 
saw the son coming they said among themselves, this is the 
heir; let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours ; so 
they cast him out of the vineyard and slew him. This vine¬ 
yard represents Jerusalem, which now is, as Paul expresses 
it, and is in bondage with her children, and is the type of the 
New Jerusalem, which is above, “the golden city of the new 
earth, the mother of us all.” This and its inhabitants are 
51 


402 


The Philosophy of 


called the bride, the Lamb’s wife, and with the new earth is 
the inheritance to which Christ, as the seed of Abraham, is 
the heir. But it may be asked, if Christ is the exclusive heir 
to the inheritance, how is it that Abraham and the innumer¬ 
able company are also called heirs. Paul answers this ques¬ 
tion thus: “ For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they 
are the sons of God, for ye have not received the spirit of 
bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of 
adoption, whereby we cry Abba Father; the spirit also 
beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of 
God, and if children, then heirs of God, and joint heirs with 
Christ , if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also 
glorified together, and if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abra¬ 
ham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.” This heir¬ 
ship we see is not legal by the law, but of grace, “ children of 
adoption.” 

We are here presented with an array of revealed truth, 
establishing the doctrine that the earth, when restored and 
brought back from the curse, is the destined inheritance of 
the glorified saints, which puts it perfectly beyond the reach 
of successful contradiction; not a ray of its light can be 
extinguished by the bigot or the caviler, or in any wise 
affected by the sarcastic sneer of the self complacent; and 
it contains not a feature but which is in harmony with sound 
sense, reason and philosophy, and more especially to look 
for the location of the heavenly world and inheritance of the 
saints anywhere else in the universe, is to reject God’s revela¬ 
tion, and to set at naught one of the most elaborately written 
and important truths of the Bible; and, of course, losing 
sight of this only localized inheritance God has revealed to 
men, has not only involved the theological world in endless 
confusion in searching the universe for the saints’ destined 
home, but has resulted in the erroneous sentiment that it mat¬ 
ters not where it is ; thus setting aside, as of no importance, 
this great revealed truth of God. 


God and the World. 


403 


CHAPTER XLVI. 

THE THIRD HEAVENS OF PAUL’S VISION — THE NEW HEAVENS 
AND EARTH. 

We cannot, however, do justice to this important subject 
without presenting it in another prominent scriptural aspect, 
that which contemplates the world in three distinct condi¬ 
tions, the result of two grand devastations through which it 
has, or is to pass, and which are declared to be so many 
heavens, earths and worlds in succession. Nothing is fur¬ 
ther from the truth, either philosophically or scripturally, 
than that the earth is doomed to annihilation. Is it not too 
great a reflection upon its author to be entertained, even for 
a moment, that he beholds in its physical structure such an 
amount of stubborn resistance and wayward derangement for 
which he can devise no remedy, and is therefore under the 
necessity of striking it out of existence % No! God made 
the world to be inhabited by a righteous nation—an immor¬ 
tal race—and will he be disappointed % Although this grand 
purpose may have been apparently delayed by the introduc¬ 
tion of sin, and the consequent temporary reign of death and 
satanic power, yet these are doomed to destruction. “The 
last enemy that shall be destroyed is death,” and the fate of 
its author is also predetermined thus: u He (Jesus) shall 
destroy him that had the power of death — that is, the devil 
—and deliver them who, through fear of death, were all 
their life-time subject of bondage.” Christ is destined to be 
King of kings and Lord of lords, and shall yet reign in 
“ righteousness from the rivers unto the ends of the earth.” 
The proclamation will yet be sung by the innumerable com¬ 
pany of his saints: “ The kingdoms of this world are become 
the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall 


404 


The Philosophy of 


reign for ever and ever.” Another stanza of this theme runs 
thns: “And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy 
to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast 
slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every 
kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation ; and hast made 
us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on 
the earth /” but it will not be until he makes the place of his 
feet glorious. u The earth is my footstool.” 

This argument is presented in such a connected manner by 
the apostle Peter, that we introduce it first—2d Peter, 3d 
chapter: “ This second epistle beloved I now write unto you. 
in both which I stir up your pure minds, by way of remem¬ 
brance, that ye may be mindful of the words which were 
spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the command¬ 
ment of the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: knowing this 
first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking 
after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his 
coming % for, since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue 
as they were from the beginning of creation. For this they 
willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens 
were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in 
the water, whereby the world that then was, being overflowed 
with water, perished. But the Heavens and the earth which 
are now, by the same word, are kept in store, reserved unto 
fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly 
men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that 
one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand 
years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his 
promise, as some men count slackness, but is long suffering 
to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all 
should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will 
come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens, being 
on fire, shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements 
shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works 
that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing, then, that all 
these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons 
ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, look- 


God and the World . 


405 

ing for and hastening nnto the coming of the day of God, 
wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the 
elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, 
according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new 
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” The apostle then 
gives us a caution not to wrest these Scriptures to our own 
destruction, conveying the idea of their great importance, 
because susceptible of such sad consequences. 

Here we are furnished with the history of three worlds, 
called three heavens and earths. The old world, which was 
its Eden state, constituted the first heavens and earth. We 
say the Eden world, for it is a mistaken idea that Eden was 
only a garden. The fact stated is that “ God planted a garden 
eastward in Eden” That is the world was Eden, and God 
planted a garden in the eastern part of it, which was the 
garden of Eden . The Eden world was so completely devas¬ 
tated and physically changed by the flood, the heavens and 
earth both so broken up and left deranged, that Peter says, 
“the world that then was perished” The windows of heaven 
were opened, and poured down the waters which were above 
them from the creation. “For we read that God made a fir¬ 
mament to divide the waters which were above the firmament 
from the waters which were beneath, and God called the firma¬ 
ment heaven” “And the fountains of the great deep were 
broken up,” the waters which at creation were gathered into 
one place (heart of the earth), and which God called seas, and 
dry land appeared all over the earth, inclosing the ‘great 
deep’ of waters, or seas, in on every side. This .beautiful 
crust, with its luxuriant soil, making the whole earth the 
garden of the Lord, was fatally destroyed by the flood.” 

“And the fountains of the great deep were broken up” 
The floods and seas of the mighty deep came rushing out from 
where they had reposed since creation, to drown the world, 
leaving the rocky strata which once lay nearest the waters, 
inclosing them on every side, as the foundation of the earth, 
and, of course, on a level with the plane of the earth’s surface, 
now standing in huge heaps, some perpendicularly and others 


406 


The Philosophy of 


in every conceivable inclination. These seas have never receded 
into their original inclosure, but now cover three-fourths 
of the earth’s surface with briny oceans, so completely oblit¬ 
erating the beautiful Eden world that Peter declares u it 
perished” which would not be true if the present world bore 
any just comparison with it. 

Such is also the destiny of the present world, reserved, not 
indeed again to be flooded with water, but deluged with fire. 
The elements entering into the formation of the heavens and 
the earth are to be dissolved in the fervent heat of the last 
great day. It is true it is to be burned up, but this only 
changes its chemical elements, and does not annihilate a single 
particle of its matter ; simply changes its form, so is the earth 
to burn. Jeremiah describes this second chaos thus : Jer. iv, 
23-28 — “I beheld the earth, and lo, it was without form and 
void ; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the 
mountains, and lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved 
lightly. I beheld, and lo, there was no man, and all the birds of 
the heavens were fled. I beheld, and lo, the fruitful place was 
a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the 
presence of the Lord and by his fierce anger. For thus hath 
the Lord said : the whole land shall be desolate ; yet I will not 
make a full end. (It will not be annihilated.) For this shall 
the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black, because I 
have spoken it. I have purposed it and I will not repent, 
neither will I turn back from it.” ‘‘Behold,” says the pro¬ 
phet Malachi, “the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and 
all the proud and all that do wickedly shall be stubble, and the 
day that cometh shall burn them up, that it shall leave them 
neither root nor branch, saith the Lord of hosts.” Here ends 
the present heavens and earth. The world was on fire and 
burned up. Then follows the new heavens and the new earth, 
constituting the “world to come,” just as the present world 
survived that which was before the flood, not, however, natu¬ 
rally as that did, but from its ashes God re-creates it. “ He 
that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” 

Hence, says Peter, quoting the promise made to Isaiah : 


God and the World. 


407 


“ Nevertheless, we, according to Ms promise, look for new 
heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelletli righteousness.” 
This promise is also that which God made to Abraham, run¬ 
ning to Christ, and which made him the “heir of the world” 
and, of course, the 44 world to come.” In Isaiah’s vision of 
it, to which we alluded, he exclaims : 4 4 Behold, I create new 
heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remem¬ 
bered nor come into mind, but be ye glad and rejoice forever 
in that which I create, for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoic¬ 
ing and her people a joy, and I will rejoice in Jerusalem, 
and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping shall no 
more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.” The new 
heavens and new earth is also Paradise, and when restored is 
the Paradisiacal, or Eden, state of the world, lost by the 
44 curse which has devoured the earth,” but ransomed and 
re-created by Christ, wherein “was no more curse” The 
name Paradise is only mentioned three times in the Bible, 
and, when properly understood, they all clearly teach that 
the location of Paradise is in the new heavens and new earth, 
indeed, is that itself. In the examination of these we com¬ 
mence with that contained in the vision of Paul: Second 
Cor. xii— 4 4 It is not expedient for me, doubtless, to glory; I 
will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a 
man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body 
or out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth), how that he 
was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words 
which it is impossible (margin) for a man to utter; how that 
he was caught up to the third heaven.” In this vision, or 
revelation, from God, it will be noticed that the apostle desig¬ 
nates and confounds the locality of Paradise and the third 
heaven; they are, therefore, the same place. We have 
already seen that Peter makes the third heaven in his series 
the new heaven, connected with the new earth, therefore, the 
new heavens and the new earth are Paradise, and is the 
exalted location of the apostle’s vision, in which he had a 
revelation of the hundred and forty-four thousand sing¬ 
ing their song which no man could learn but them, or as 


408 


The Philosophy of 


expressed by Paul, “ words which it was impossible tc 
utter.” 

The next passage containing this word is recorded Luke 
xxiii, 42, 43: “And he said unto Jesus, Lord remember me 
when thou comest into thy kingdom ; and Jesus saith unto 
him, verily I say unto thee to-day, shalt thou be with me in 
Paradise.” It will be seen that we have placed the comma 
after, instead of before, the word “to-day,” where it belongs, 
and therefore makes it teach the same idea as elsewhere, by 
the use of the word Paradise. First Paul’s revelation makes 
Paradise and the third heaven the same place, and Peter 
makes the third heaven and earth that which survives the 
conflagration of this, and is tantamount to the everlasting 
kingdom of God. The thief prayed to be remembered when 
Christ came into this, his kingdom , which is to be his second 
coming. Jesus answered that prayer: “I say unto you 
to-day, thou shalt be with me in Paradise ;” that is, to-day I 
give you the pledge that I will then remember thee, and then, 
when I come into my kingdom, shalt thou be with me in 
Paradise. This exposes the heathen philosophic notion 
adopted by some Protestant commentators of three heavens 
piled up above each other in the air, the upper one of which 
is where Paul went, and which is the residence of God. 
Besides, Jesus said three days after this day: “Touch me 
not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father.” It also dis¬ 
sipates the Popish idea, which sends Jesus and the thief both 
into hell, called by them purgatory, on the day of their cruci¬ 
fixion. But to confirm this view of Paradise still further, we 
introduce the revelator’s description of its location, and it 
must be remembered that the revelation was the last book of 
the Bible written, and therefore places every thing contained 
in the inspired writings in its proper order of fulfillment, and 
locates all the scenes of inspiration. “To him that over- 
cometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the 
midst of the Paradise of God.” Bev. ii, 7. Here it is 
declared that the tree of life is in Paradise, but does not say 
where Paradise is, neither the location of the tree of life, but 


God and the World. 


409 


they are in the same place, and that is also where the saints 
who overcome are to be. The 21st and 22d chapters makes all 
this plain, and forever settles the question of the localization 
of Paradise, and is that wherein the saints of all ages are 
gathered and immortalized, mingling their songs, as they leis¬ 
urely wander along the banks of the river of the water of life, 
and from the tree of life pluck the immortal fruit to which 
they now have eternal access, the approaches to which are no 
more guarded by the flaming sword, which turned every way, 
as in old Eden. The leaves • of which had been sufficient to 
heal the nations of the deadly wound of sin. But we quote 
the picture, which no words of man can adorn, or make more 
comprehensible: 

‘ ‘ And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first 
heaven and the first earth were passed away (the present 
heavens had passed away with a great noise and the earth was 
burned up, Peter), and there was no more sea (the seas had 
gone back within their original fountain). And I (John) saw 
the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out 
of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, and 
I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold the taber¬ 
nacle of God is with men, and they shall be his people, and 
God himself shall be with them and be their God, and God 
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and there shall be 
no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there 
be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. 
And he that sat upon the throne said, behold, I make all 
things new. And he said unto me write, for these words are 
true and faithful. And he said unto me, it is done, I am 
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending. I will give 
unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life 
freely ; he that overcometh shall inherit all these things (the 
inheritance God promised to Abraham and his seed), and I 
will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful 
and unbelieving, and the abominable, and all murderers, 
whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have 
their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone 

which is the second death. 

52 


410 


The Philosophy of 


“ And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had 
the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with 
me saying, come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s 
wife, and he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high 
mountain, and showed me that great city, the Holy Jerusalem, 
descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, 
and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like 
a jasper stone clear as crystal, and had a wall great and high, 
and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and 
names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve 
tribes of the children of Israel; on the east three gates, on the 
north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west 
three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations 
and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 
And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the 
city and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof, and the city 
lieth four square, and the length is as large as the breadth, 
and he measured the city with the reed twelve thousand fur¬ 
longs, the length and the breadth and the height of it are 
equal. And he measured the wall thereof a hundred and 
forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man (or 
as a man would measure), that is the angel. 

“And the building of the wall of it was of jasper, and the 
city was pure gold like unto clear glass, and the foundations 
of the walls of the city were garnished with all manner of 
precious stones. The first foundation was jasper (jas-per), 
the second, sapphire (saf-fire); the third, chalcedony (chal-se- 
do-ny); the fourth an emerald (em-er-ald); fifth, sardonyx 
(sar-don-ix); sixth, sardius (sar-di-us); seventh, chrysolite 
(kris-o-lite); eighth, beryl (ber-ril); ninth, topaz (to-paz); 
tenth, chrysoprasus (kris-op-ra-sus); eleventh, jacinth (ja- 
sinth); twelfth, an amethyst (am-e-thist). And the twelve 
gates were twelve pearls ; every several gate was of one pearl; 
and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent 
glass. And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God 
Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it; and the city 
had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, 


God and tee Would. 


411 

for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light 
thereof. And the nations of them that are saved shall walk 
in the light of it, and the kings of the earth do bring their 
glory into it, and the gates of it shall not be shut at all by 
day, for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring 
the glory and honor of the nations into it, and there shall in 
no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatso¬ 
ever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which 
are written in the Lamb’s book of life. 

“And he showed me a pure river of water of life, as clear 
as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the 
Lamb ; in the midst of the street of it, on either side of the 
river, was there the tree of life (this was, therefore, Paradise) 
which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit 
every month ; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing 
of the nations. And there shall be no more curse; but the 
throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants 
shall serve him; and they shall see his face ; and his name 
shall be in their forehead ; and there shall be no night there, 
and they need no candle, neither light of the sun, for the 
Lord God giveth them light; and they shall reign forever and 
ever. And he said unto me, these sayings are faithful and 
true ; and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel 
to show unto his servants the things which must shortly come 
to pass (or begin to come to pass). Behold I come quickly; 
blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this 
book. And I, John, saw these things and heard them, and 
when I had heard and seen I fell down to worship before the 
feet of the angel which showed me these things. Then saith 
he unto me, see thou do it not; for I am thy fellow servant, 
and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them that keep the 
sayings of this book ; worship God. And he saith unto me, 
seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time 
is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he 
that is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, 
let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy 
still. 


412 


The Philosophy of 


“And behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to 
give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha 
and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. 
Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may 
have a right to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates 
into the city, for without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whore¬ 
mongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth 
and maketh a lie. (These had been cast into outer darkness 
or into the lake of fire and brimstone.) I, Jesus, have sent 
mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. 
I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and the 
morning star. And the spirit and the bride say come, and let 
him that heareth say come, and let him that is athirst come, 
and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. For 
I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the proph¬ 
ecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God 
shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book ; 
and if any man shall take away from the words of the book 
of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the 
book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things 
which are written in this book. He which testifieth these 
things saith, surely I come quickly, amen, even so, come 
Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you 
all, amen.” 

What can be more clear from this teaching than that 
Paradise and the new heavens and earth is the same place, 
and is the world to come ? 


God and the World. 


413 


CHAPTER XLVII. 

THE NEW JERUSALEM EXCELS IN BEAUTY ALL GOD’S WORKS. 

In these chapters we have God’s great revelation to man¬ 
kind, presenting in glowing numbers and vivid descriptions 
that grand and only world completed, for which all others were 
merely preparatory, and especially the new Jerusalem, with 
its beauty, richness, symmetry, architectural sublimity and 
grandeur, out-vieing all God’s works ; and why should it not 
when he made it for his own temple-palace and eternal dwell¬ 
ing place, forever surrounded by all his angels and saints, 
made perfect ? “ For God himself shall be with them and be 

their God.” 

Jupiter with her belts and moons, and Saturn with her glow¬ 
ing ring and attendant satellites, present, perhaps, the most 
beautiful display of created things, but, except in dimension, 
what are these when compared with this golden and pearl 
beautified city ? 

“The palace of angels and God;” the eternal city of 
immortals, in which they shall reign forever and ever. Think 
of the light of the sun, moon and stars being superseded by 
the shining and glowing radiance of God and the Lamb ! 
Then of the city itself, the great capital of the kingdom of 
God, whose vastness and magnificence adorns the new earth. 
By the measurement given, we find that this city is about foui 
hundred miles each way, with twelve foundations or floors, 
one to each story, and each made of a different pearl, contain¬ 
ing room sufficient to accommodate all the inhabitants of the 
world who have ever lived and died in one story, and, per¬ 
haps, not more than one-half of the race have been saved, and 
it is only the nations of them that are saved who are per¬ 
mitted to enter the city, and then that this is simply the great 
capital of the new earth, the whole of which is the inheritance 


414 


The Philosophy of 


of the saints, but who forever have access within the never 
shut gates of the new Jerusalem. 

“ The city of the great king.” The prediction was, 44 I will 
make the place of my feet glorious.” Jesus said, 44 Heaven is 
my throne, the earth is my foot-stool, and Jerusalem is the 
city of the great king.” This is now fulfilled ; the earth has 
been made glorious, and the new Jerusalem, the city of the 
great king, stands shining in glorious splendor upon her Par¬ 
adisiacal bosom. It is the possession of this and its immortal 
surroundings and associations, which induced Jesus to forego 
his previous glory and to submit to the death of the cross. 
“Who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, 
despised the shame, and is set down on the right hand of the 
majesty on high.” 

The Jews took him on one occasion to make him a king, 
and though he declared, “to this end was I born,” yet he 
escaped out of their hands, exclaiming, “now is my king¬ 
dom not from hence,” it does not now begin. “I am as a man 
traveling into a far country, to receive for myself a kingdom, 
and to return.” “And he came with the clouds of heaven (as 
the Ancient of Pays), and there was given to him dominion 
and glory and a kingdom, that all nations should serve him, 
whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion 
that which shall have no end.” It was thus given to him as 
Joshua gave the promised land (the type of this) to the 
Israelites, after which they had to drive out their enemies, 
the Canaanites. So Jesus receives his kingdom and then 
comes forth in the glory of his Father, with all his angels, 
and drives out and burns up all the wicked nations of men, 
exclaiming, 4 4 Lo, I come, and my reward is with me and my 
work before me.” 44 He shall send forth his angels at the time 
of harvest (end of the world), and they shall gather out of his 
kingdom all things that offend, and cast them into a lake of 
fire, and they shall be burned. Then shall the righteous 
shine forth in the kingdom of their Father. 

It will be seen that we have assumed the New Jerusalem to 
be a literal city, just as described, and we ask, how could we 


God and the World . 


415 

do otherwise ? Can it be a type ? The day of types, with all 
other sublunary things, have passed away forever, and the 
perfect and eternal have come. This is the grand antitype 
itself, and as the old Jerusalem was that type, and was a real 
city, so must the new Jerusalem be a reality, or we have the 
strange incongruity of a reality typifying an unreality. If it 
is a figurative city, of what is it a figure % not of the saints, 
for they are its inhabitants. Figures point only to things to 
come, but this is the eternal city, the everlasting residence of 
God and the Lamb, and is that, therefore, to which the figures 
of time pointed. Is it a shadow, this must have its substance 
beyond and to come % but this is the grand consummation never 
to end, and, therefore, the incorruptible substance of all the 
shadows which preceded it. Is it a symbolic city 1 Of what ? 
A symbol must not only precede, but bear a striking corres¬ 
pondence to, the thing symbolized, but this is the very thing 
itself of which the Jerusalem of the Hebrews was the symbol; 
were it otherwise it would present the absurdity of its being 
a symbol of a symbol. Is it a transient tabernacle ? That was 
its type in the wilderness, in which the Shekinah appeared 
typical of the shining glory of God and the Lamb, radiating 
the new Jerusalem city. # 

But this is the tabernacle of God itself, “the house not 
made with hands” (human), pitched by him, and not man; 
and is as decay less as the roll of ages, or the immortal years 
of God. These were all the evanescent things of time, only 
serving to point out eternal realities. It must be observed, 
too, that these typical, shadowy things were all substances, 
and in the philosophy of things could there be a greater per¬ 
version or absurdity than that substances of time were used to 
convey the idea of shadows in eternity; real things, as fig¬ 
ures, to indicate unrealisms to come; facts to symbolize visions ? 

We are aware that a temple built of lively, polished stones 
is used to symbolize the church as constituted in the present 
world ; but do not the real stones of the real temple symbol¬ 
ize the real members of the church % Was it ever known that 
a figure was employed to represent a figure, much less a sub- 


416 


The Philosophy of 


stantial tiling to represent an unsubstantial ? Idealisms may 
represent things, but who would think of using things to 
represent idealisms. Indeed, there is no philosophic analogy 
between the two conceptions. It would be more rational to 
attempt to convey the idea of sound by color, or of feeling 
by sight, or motion by inertia, because these are all exist¬ 
ences ; but to employ a real thing to represent an ideality, or 
to attempt to convey an intelligent conception of the one by 
the aid of the other, involves a philosophic impossibility. A 
curiously shaped thing may be conceived, which had no 
existence, and be used as a figure; but in the conception 
there is the real thing, nevertheless, which, with all its pecu¬ 
liar features, is susceptible of being made. But can any 
analogy exist between this and idealisms, which admit of no 
features, forms or shapes; for the very moment you invest 
them with these, their idealism vanishes, and each becomes 
the conception of a substantial thing, susceptible of being 
made. Now from all these considerations drawn from scrip¬ 
ture, science, philosophy, logic, metaphysics, and the unde¬ 
viating philology of words, can any truth be better established 
than that the New Jerusalem of the revelation is a real city, 
and wi^l be constructed by Jesus, if it is not already, just as 
described? “The city not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens.” “ The many mansions he has gone to prepare.” 

Here, then, are the immortal saints having a right to enter 
in through the gates into the city, where Christ, in his glory, 
dwells, “whose countenance is as the sun shining in his 
strength,” exceeding that of the sun, moon and stars, and 
forms the eternal illumination of the golden city. Besides, 
if this city is a mere idealism, a figure, shadow, or symbol, so 
are its inhabitants, Jesus and the saints, and if this be admit¬ 
ted, then away with the Bible and its resurrection of the 
dead; Jesus is a myth, God a phantasy, the saints bodiless 
spirits eternally. We are thus driven to the adoption of 
Plato’s heathen, philosophic future state, and the fires of his 
purgatory, instead of the blood of atonement preparatory 
thereto, and which at best is nothing but fancy ; no, no world 


God and the World . 


417 


at all, only an idealism, and no God, for tlie God of Plato is 
the God of the pantheist, confounded with his own universe ; 
no, no universe, only another abstraction; no, the intelligent 
voices of the universe warn us away from this impenetrable 
darkness, and we start back with horror from the dreadful vor¬ 
tex of error, and plant our feet on the eternal rock of God’s 
great revelation to man, with increased thankfulness for the 
bestowment of the precious gift. 

Embraced in this great consummation is, first, the resurrec¬ 
tion of the saints, and the change of the living into the same 
immortal nature, and then all caught up in the air and 
remain there, with the Lord, in the new Jerusalem city, until 
the world is burned up, and the new heavens and the new 
earth created; then Christ and the saints come down in the 
golden city and take possession of this, their eternal inherit¬ 
ance. Before thus descending, the revelator sees and des¬ 
cribes them thus : Chapter xv, 2, 3— “And I saw, as it were, 
a sea of glass mingled with fire (an indistinct vision of the 
transparent city of gold), and them that had gotten the victory 
over the beast, and over his image, and over his m^rk, and 
over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, hav¬ 
ing the harps of God, and they sing the song of Moses, the 
servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and 
marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and 
true are thy ways, thou king of saints.” Here is mingled 
the typical song of deliverance from Egyptian bondage with 
its antitype, the great deliverance from the bondage of corrup¬ 
tion. The first ran thus: “Then sang Moses and the children 
of Israel this song unto the Lord, saying, I will sing unto the 
Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his 
rider hath he thrown into the sea. Thou didst blow with thy 
wind, the sea covered them, they sank as lead in the mighty 
waters, who is like unto thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in 
praises, doing wonders.” 

Answering to this the whole house of Israel, now safe in the 
mansions of Jesus, or the Jerusalem above, triumphantly sing 
over the ruins of the grave. “0, death, where is thy sting, 
53 


418 


The Philosophy of 


O, grave, where is thy victory ?” The prediction of the pro¬ 
phet, “I will be thy plagues, O, death, and thy destruction, 
0, grave,” is now fulfilled. The prayer of Jesus is also here 
fulfilled. “Father, I will that they also whom thou hast 
given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my 
glory.” The following scene now takes place. “And the 
angel carried me away into an exceeding high mountain and 
showed me the bride, the Lamb’s wife, that great city, the 
Holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.” Isaiah 
speaks of this scene thus: “Thy dead men shall live, 
together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and 
sing ye that dwell in the dust, and the earth shall cast out her 
dead. Come my people enter into thy chambers (the many 
mansions), and shut thy doors about thee ; hide thyself, as it 
were for a little moment, until the indignation (the burning 
of the world) be overpassed. For behold the Lord cometh out 
of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their 
iniquity; the earth also shall disclose her blood and shall no 
more cover her slain.” Zach. xiv, 3, also speaks of this: 
“ Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations 
as when he fought in the day of battle, and his feet shall 
stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before 
Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave 
in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and 
there shall be a very great valley, and half of the mountain 
shall be removed toward the north, and half of it toward the 
south, and ye shall flee to the valley of the mountain. And 
the Lord my God shall come and all his saints with him, and 
it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from 
Jerusalem (the river of the water of life). And the Lord shall 
be king over all the earth.” Jude, xiv: “And Enoch also, 
the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, behold, 
the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute 
judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly 
among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have com¬ 
mitted, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners 
have spoken against him.” Enoch was the first prophet God 


God and the World. 


419 


inspired to write, and, as we see, liis prophecy passes over 
the world’s history, and portrays the final consummation of all 
things, as the great and absorbing object for which God made 
the present world. 

It will be remembered that it was from the Mount of Olives 
Jesus ascended, and in the day he returns God says : 4 4 His 
feet shall stand again on the Mount of Olives.” A great valley 
will be formed by its division, and to that the wicked of the 
earth will be constrained to flee to meet their judge. God 
showed this also to Job, and we hear him exclaim : 44 1 know 
that my redeemer liveth and that he shall stand upon the earth 
in the latter day.” God also shows Joel this scene with still 
more minuteness : 4 4 Behold, in those days, and in that time, 
when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem 
(of the 4 Hew Jerusalem, the mother of us all,’ Paul), I will 
also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the 
valley of Jehoshaphat (this is at the foot of the Mount of 
Olives, the seat of the judge); and I will plead with them 
there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they 
have scattered among the nations, and have parted my land. 
Proclaim ye this among the gentiles ; prepare war; make up 
the mighty men ; let all the men of war draw near ; let them 
come up ; beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning- 
hooks into spears ; let the weak say I am strong; assemble 
yourselves, and come, all ye heathen round about, and gather 
yourselves together (this is the gathering for the great battle 
of Armageddon); thither cause thy mighty ones to come 
down, 0 Lord (the angels of the harvest); let the heathen be 
wakened and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there 
will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in 
the sickle, for the harvest is ripe ; come, get you down, for the 
press is full; the fats overflow, for their wickedness is great. 
Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision (judgment), 
for the day of the Lord is near, in the valley of decision. The 
Lord shall roar out of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusa¬ 
lem (where he is now above with his saints), and the heavens 
and the earth shall shake ; but the Lord will be the hope of 


420 


The Philosophy of 


his people and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall 
ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion (Jeru¬ 
salem), my holy mountain (kingdom); then shall Jerusalem 
be holy (the holy city, the New Jerusalem), and there shall no 
strangers pass through her any more.” 

Psalms xlvi, 4: “ There is a river, the streams whereof 
shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the taber¬ 
nacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She 
shall not be moved, for God is the king over all the earth.” 
Heb. : ‘ 6 But ye are come unto Mount Sion (Zion), unto the 
city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an 
innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and 
church of the first born, which are written in heaven (they 
were found written in the Lamb’s book of life), and to God, 
the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.” 
They now have their spiritualized and immortal bodies, having- 
passed the “resurrection of the just,” and of course are made 
perfect. Here again is the “heavenly Jerusalem,” the city 
of the living God, with its inhabitants — the angels, the saints 
made perfect, and God the judge of all. About this Jesus 
discoursed, while upon earth with his disciples, thus : “In my 
father’s house are many mansions ; if it were not so I would 
have told you. I go to prepare a place for you (to build the 
city), and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come 
again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye 
may be also.” Again he said: “I will bring my father with 
me, and we will make up our abode with you.” John sees it 
and exclaims: “Behold, the tabernacle (dwelling-place, or 
abode) of God is with men, and he will dwell with them and 
be their God, and they shall be his people.” Cor. ii, 5: “For 
we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were 
dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with 
hands (human hands) eternal in the heavens (new heavens), 
for in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon 
with our house which is from heaven (the house of God, with 
many mansions), that mortality might be swallowed up of 
life.” Now he that wrought us for the self-same thing is God 


God and the World . 


421 


(this is the purpose of our being), therefore we are always con¬ 
fident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are 
absent from the Lord, for we must all appear before the judg¬ 
ment seat of Christ. For I am now ready to be offered ; the 
time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, 
I have finished my course. I have kept the faith ; henceforth 
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the 
Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day ; and not 
to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 55 
Here is a plain test: Do we love Ms appearing ? If not there 
is no crown promised to us. 

The great apostle standing on the verge of eternity seemed 
to linger for a moment in the intermediate state, but quickly 
turning his eyes from the place of the dead, and with one 
bound his faith grasps the immortal; he looked for the 
appearing of his Lord and Judge, to give him his crown. 
He desired to be with the Lord, not, however, to die. “ Not 
that I would be unclothed , but be clothed upon, that mor¬ 
tality might be swallowed up of life. 55 In his estimation 
the interval between death and the resurrection was so short 
and insignificant, in comparison with the immortal future 
beyond the resurrection, that he saw nothing inviting in it, 
and, therefore, it is not mentioned. The house of God, that 
was eternal in the heavens, absorbed his soul, brightened his 
hope and armed him with strength for his approaching mar¬ 
tyrdom. 

These, with the' numerous concurring passages which we 
might continue to quote, give us the information upon this 
great subject, God has seen fit to reveal, and presents the rea¬ 
son for the hope of the Christian, and of course which is in 
the widest contrast to the philosophic heaven of the heathen. 
That realizes its future state at death, and which forever leaves 
its subjects bodiless spirits, while the eternal future of the 
Christian has its foundation in the immortal resurrection. 
Heathenism has no locality, nor does it need any, in which its 
spirits dwell, for, being immateriality, they occupy no space, 


422 


The Philosophy of 


while the Christian has, as the object of his hope, a glorious, 
tangible and substantial inheritance:— 

“ Mansions built by God, 

Where with him they ever dwell.” 

No prophet or apostle seems to have dwelt upon the inter¬ 
mediate state definitely or with delight, so that it is not easy 
to make a separate subject of it, and as it is not in accordance 
with our design to attempt the defense of any doctrine or 
theory, which has not numerous passages of scripture which 
speak of it in positive and unequivocal language, and not left 
to be proved by mere inferential texts, and as we have seen 
quite a number of those used for this purpose, when prop¬ 
erly understood, such as the promise Christ made to the thief 
on the cross, have no reference to that subject. Therefore, we 
leave it for every one to form his own opinion, but it is with 
supreme satisfaction that we dwell on the universal hope of 
the church, which, for its fruition, looks to the consummation 
of all things for its realization, and we cannot better conclude 
this subject than by introducing the following selection from 
“ Voices from Paradise 

THE SAINTS AT THE CITY GATES. 

’Mid the dissolving heavens, victory shouting 
With their Lord the saints had gone up ; high 
On a sea of glass in holy triumph stood, 

Safely housed within the golden, transparent 
Walls of the New Jerusalem, with its many-built 
Mansions, which Christ, the great Architect, 

Promised to go, prepare, and bring again, with 
His own hands, to draught, to lay the twelve 
Foundations. “ The house not made with hands ” 
(Human). “The top stone thereof, ere this, by angels 
Had been brought with shoutings, crying, 

‘Grace, grace unto it.’” ’Tis the Jerusalem now 
Above, but to descend and rest forever on the 
New-made earth, Paradise restored. 

A moment before the gates of pearl stood the 
Unnumbered concourse of God’s elect. “The 


God and the World . 


423 


King’s daughter, within, without, all glorious” 
Gazing with ecstacy delightful upon their 
More glorious Lord, who, in a moment, to the 
Front came forth, and to the closed barriers, 

With the voice of the Almighty spake, alone 
Having power to command and move the 
Inanimate. “Lift up your heads, O ye gates, 

Ye everlasting doors give way, let the King 
Of glory in.” A voice from within responsive 
Came : “ Who is this King of glory, who % The 
Lord, strong and mighty—the Lord mighty 
In battle, He is the King of glory. Lift up your 
Heads, O ye gates ; even lift them up ye everlasting 
Doors, and the King of glory shall come in. 

Who is this King of glory % The Lord of hosts, he 
Is the King of glory.” 

To his throne triumphant comes, 

Alone whose right it is to reign; 

The wine-press trod, victory won, 

The Lamb of God, who once was slain, 
Ancient of Days the clouds have brought, 

How for my kingdom in glory come. 

On Armageddon’s fields I’ve fought; 

They came, they saw, were slain, “’tis done.” 
Her gates on golden hinges hung, 

Huge and massive, yet gently swung, 

Wide they flew at his command, 

Moved as by omnipic hand, 

An angel sentinel at each gate, 

Paced with solemn, majestic tread, 

These, on the royal guest to wait, 

Who through the pearly doors they led. 


DIMENSIONS AND GRANDEUR OF THE CITY. 

How within its walls gazed the redeemed, 

Rapt in wonder and delight. O the city ! 
Prodigious mansions, becoming the grandeur 
Of God who built — eternal residence of saints, 
Angels, God and the Lamb ; concentration 


424 The Philosophy of 

Of all the riches and beauty within God’s wide domain. 
He who decks in rich adornment the lilies of 
The field, unconscious of their robes, 

Shall he not bedeck the palace of himself, and 
Saints, reigning now as kings, and queens immortal! 
Its vastness behold: “ Twelve thousand furlongs, 

On either side, and this its height: ” Of miles, five, 
Seventy, and hundreds three. The length, 

Breadth, height, each way, when measured, 

Was equal, “lying four square.” One building, 

’T was itself a city; its sides the walls ; these of 
Cubits, one hundred and forty and four thick, 

The twelve foundations, each, the floor of 
Higher mansions, towering one above the 
Other. Pure gold the street and walls, not 
Opaque as the unrefined and crude of earth, 

But “as it were transparent glass ” shining 
Like polished jasper. ’T was itself a jasper, 

Golden city, like unto clear glass, such its 
Transparency. Each foundation of the higher, 

Built thereon though gold itself, still was 
Garnished, studded thickly with all manner 
Of precious stones, and pearls, crystallines of 
Every shade, hue and brightness. Each of the many 
Mansions was garnished with precious stones 
Peculiar to itself; each reflecting, refracting 
Rays from Christ, the city’s central sun, 

Ineffably radiating all these hallowed mansions 
With the varied pristine colors, in all their 
Shades, hues and lovely tinge. The jewels of 
The mansions refracted from every prismy 
Point, burdening all the air with nameless beauty. 

The light itself, not as the dazzlings of the sun 
Of earth, and painful to behold. To say 
’Twas soft, serene, mellow, fascinating, e’en v 
Entrancing, are words too weak for its description ; 
Light charged, nay, surcharged, with all the 
Colors, tinges, shades of every prismatic, 

Precious stone adorning these great mansions : 
Radiance from the great Son of Righteousness 


God and the World. 


425 


Himself thus refracted and refined. 

O, the charms, the hallowed beams, 

Needing neither shades nor screens ; 

Light’s deep splendor of every tinge 
Hanging the air in golden fringe. 

Immortal faces, reflectors all, 

From Christ, the central glory, fall, 

Illumes the city with His light; 

There ’tis day, and never night. 

DESCRIPTION OF EACH FOUNDATION. 

The first foundation was garnished with jasper, 
Mingling with red, yellow, and colors 
Less bright, admitting polish high, such 
The Egyptian pebble ; one of which Cleopatra, 

At the banquet of Mark Antony—the 
Costliness of Egypt’s to Home’s to show— 

Plucked a ruby from her ear, dissolved, 

Drank off the precious jewel: the Homan, 

King, emperor, beholding, gave the prize — 

Egypt’s queen had conquered, partaking of 

A supper that Home, in all her glory, could not afford. 

But this foundation, this wall, so high, so 

Vast, was thickly studded o’er with these 

Polished, shining jasper gems ; nay, the 

Whole foundation itself was jasper, tinging 

Every ray of this fair mansion with red 

And yellow hues, blending and mingling 

With those of less brilliancy ; adorned was 

Thus the first, the lowest mansion; in 

Whose center was set the throne of God and 

The Lamb, circular in form, vast, grand — 

Attempt at its description every word degrades. 

Look at it, ye saints, with delight, 

And long its possession to share. 

The second with sapphire was garnished, 

Crystalline blue, oriental ruby, as the 
Diamond, hard. Prisms thus composed 
Sent forth rays of blue and red, mingling 
54 


The Philosophy of 


From point to point, through all the air 
Of this heavenly mansion. 

Light, essential to color, here forever shining, 
Enveloped every object and being in a halo 
Of effulgent, endless glory, like the fadeless 
Sun, shining in her strength and never-ending radiance. 
The third was chalcedony ; serene its beams, 

A river of moving, sweet, lucid streams ; 

Beautiful mansion, translucent and white. 

The air was soft with its mild, mellow light; 
Prismatic its agates, ambient rays shed ; 

Sard and carnelian flashed out their red. 

The fourth was the emerald; waving, deep green, 
Charging the air with its sweet crystalline, 

Like the spring-time of Paradise, as it was seen 
When God woke the stars, his glory to sing. 

The fifth — sardonyx, the walls of this high-wrought 
Mansion, adorned with its silicious, sparkling 
Gems, orange-colored agates, some of undulating 
Surface, polished in waving, rolling splendor, 
Modulating all the air and light in harmony 
With themselves, surpassing descriptive power. 

The sixth was sardius : stones so precious that one 
By God’s own direction was set in Aaron’s 
Breastplate — the first appointed priest of earth, 

Faint type of the great high priest above ; 

Thus had God respect to detailed adornment, 

Rich, gorgeous splendor; and will He not 
Adorn His own eternal palace % For what 
Are colors, if not to minister to the happiness 
Of men, angels, and e’en of God himself? 

Who is himself the eternal source of beauty, and 
With love of the beautiful, these, he did endow. 

Why is man sentient % Why made in harmony 
With the sublime, with beauty, which light 
And color alone reveal enough of its tiny 
Tints, sparsely scattered o’er this lower world, 

To give foretaste, and shall not the eternal 
Banquet come ? It cannot be, that this should 
Fail, if God is beatific still, and in resource 


God and the World . 


427 


Equal, beliold Him then, if in our nature this 
Is all sensiferous, men endowed with tastes, and 
Powers, only to be disappointed. No, it cannot, cannot be. 
The seventh mansion was garnished with chrysolite, 
Transparent, hard, enduring, throwing from its million 
Prisms, translucent rays of shaded green, 

All thickly set within the golden jasper 
Walls. Marvelous mansion, raptured vision, 

Thy glory when shall I see, or only see to lose ? 

Eighth — Adorned with beryl, was this heavenly mansion 
Of the holy city, with their six sided prisms, 

Scattered modulated rays of blue and greenish 
Light, crossing, recrossing and blending in 
The very acme of concentrated beauty ; these 
Were massive. Here and there, e’en in the 
Present world, is found a huge prismatic 
Beryl, just to indicate to us what’t will be, 

When God makes the earth his foot-stool, 

Glorious, on whose redeemed bosom stands 
The “City of the Great King,” holy Jerusalem, 
Concentrated center of universal grandeur. 

The ninth, in beauty was adorned with topaz, 

Pellucid as the air. Ever flowing from these 
Burnished gems, were undulating waves 
Of yellowish light, mingled with greenish 
Tint and brownish shades. Some so massive, 

Not transparent, all blending in the purest 
Tints and shades of loveliness. 

The tenth — the decorations of this department of the 
“ House of God” were chrysoprasus, shining in 
Apple-green, semi-transparent, translucent, 

Harder than the flint. In extremest beauty, 

And loveliness, appeared all this fair mansion, * 

And what was He who made it such \ If the 
Work is grand beyond conception, or descriptive 
Power, what of the workman % 

The eleventh was jacinth, with its pellucid gems 
O’erlaying the wide foundation, spreading the walls, 
Hanging all the sacred place in gorgeous 
Hallowed sheen ; oriental sun-set is but its feeble image. 


428 


The Philosophy of 


The twelfth, the last and highest mansion, with 
Amethyst was gorgeously spangled o’er, whose precious 
Stones, emitting rays of violet, of intensity 
Various degrees, crystal prisms, 

Terminated in rising pyramids, taking 
Shades of violet blue. 

The light, within these many towering mansions 
Of the great building of God, unlike the 
Light without, shown through the clear 
Pellucid walls, and thus the city stood in 
Grand, eternal illumination. 

The sun without, though shining in undiminished 
Paradisiacal splendor, did no more change 
Or modify that within the city, than moon- 
Beams, darken those of the central sun. 

4 4 They have no need of the sun to shine in it, 

For the Lord God giveth them light, and the 
Lamb is the light thereof.” 


God and the World. 


429 


CHAPTER XLVIII. 

THE GREAT RESTITUTION OE ALL THINGS. 

In close connection with the subject of the inheritance of 
the saints is the doctrine of the “restitution.” We introduce 
this by quoting the words of Peter, just after the resurrection 
of Jesus. Acts ii, 20, 21: “And he shall send Jesus Christ, 
which before was preached unto you, whom the heavens must 
receive until the times of restitution of all things, which 
God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since 
the world began.” That the restitution or re-creation of all 
things is to take place at the return of Jesus Christ, as he 
went away, in the clouds of heaven, in proof of this, we shall 
confine the testimony to a single passage from each of the 
prophets, in the chronological order of their inspiration. This 
restitution contemplates the re-creation of the world to its Par¬ 
adisiacal or Eden state. In it is located the New Jerusalem 
city, as the palace of the Great King ; the redemption and 
ransom of all God’s saints from death and the grave, and they 
put in possession of their immortal inheritance. The curse 
of the earth removed, this great work will be consummated 
when it will be. said by him who sat upon the throne: “ Behold 
I make all things new.” We observe here, without stopping, 
as we pass along, that many of these passages are often quoted 
as applicable to the present world, and are to have their fulfill¬ 
ment in the general, if not universal, conversion of men to 
Christianity, and hence the supposition that such a state of 
things is to be realized before the end of the world; but as 
these passages teach the universal reign of Christ and his im¬ 
mortal saints on the new earth, therefore there is no ground for 
this great error, and which is no more taught in the Bible than 
it is possible of achievement. We say it is impossible because 


430 


The Philosophy of 


we are in the last dispensation, and it comprehends all the 
elements of moral power God can consistently put into requi¬ 
sition for the Christianization of man, and as we have seen 
that the picture God inspired his prophets to draw, of the 
moral condition of the world, is that when it ends it will be 
nearly sunk in universal wickedness, and that this result is 
the production of gradually developed acts and examples of 
wickedness, the enormity of which, in the estimation of God, 
is aggravated by the increased light of gospel truth and privi¬ 
lege through this period of its development, according to the 
principle, “ where much is given much shall be required.” 

We begin with the prophecy of Enoch, recorded in Jude: 
“Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to 
execute judgment upon all.” 2 Sam. vii, 16, 17 : “And thine 
house and thy kingdom shall be established forever, before 
thee; and thy throne shall be established forever, according 
to all these words, and according to all this vision ;” so did 
Nathan speak unto David. This referred to Jesus and his 
throne, of whom David was only the type. Acts xiii, 22, 23 : 
“And when he had removed him (Saul) he raised up unto 
them David, to be their king, to whom also he gave testi¬ 
mony, and said: I have found David, the son of Jesse, a 
man after mine own heart, who shall fulfill all my will. Of 
this man’s seed hath God, according to his promise, raised 
unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus; and I will give unto him the 
sure mercies of David. Men and brethren, let me freely speak 
unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and 
buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. There¬ 
fore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with 
an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the 
flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne.” Isa. 
xi, 5-9: “And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, 
and faithfulness the girdle of his reins ; the wolf shall dwell 
with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; 
and the calf and the young lion together, and a little child 
shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed to¬ 
gether ; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and the 


God and the World. 


431 


suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp ; and the 
weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den. 
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain 
(kingdom); for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the 
Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” 

The ferociousness of the beasts, as well as their carniverous 
disposition, was the result of the curse ; and grass and herbs 
were their original food. Gen. i, 30: “And to every beast of 
the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that 
creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given 
every green herb for meat.” Jer. xxxi, 33: “But this is the 
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: after 
those days, saitli the Lord, I will put my law in their inward 
parts (so that all the elements of their immortal nature will 
be in harmony with it), and write them in their hearts ; and I 
will be their God, and they shall be my people; and they 
shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man 
his brother, saying, know the Lord ? for all shall know him 
from the least of them, even unto the greatest of them, saitli 
the Lord ; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remem¬ 
ber their sins no more.” Such a state of things supersedes 
any further necessity for gospel teaching ; “that which is per¬ 
fect has come, and they know even as they are known.” 
Prophecy has ceased, and the eternal laws of love and knowl¬ 
edge characterize the saints of God, and pervade the univer¬ 
sal empire of the new earth. 

Ezekiel xxxiv : “And I will set up one shepherd over them, 
and he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd, and 
the Lord shall be their God, and my servant David (Christ), a 
prince among them. I, the Lord, have spoken it, and I will 
make with them a covenant of peace, and I will cause the evil 
beasts to cease out of the land.” Daniel vii, 27: “And the 
kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom 
under the whole heaven (and consequently over all the world), 
shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, 
whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions 
shall serve and obey him.” Hosea i, 10: “Yet the number 


432 


The Philosophy of 


of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which 
cannot be measured nor numbered ; and it shall come to pass 
that in the place where it was said unto them, ye are not my 
people, there shall it be said unto them, ye are the sons of the 
living God.” Joel ii, 16, 17: “ The Lord also shall roar out 
of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem ; and the heavens 
and the earth shall shake ; but the Lord will be the hope of 
his people and the strength of the children of Israel; so shall 
ye know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, my 
holy mountain ; then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall 
be no strangers pass through her any more.” Amos ix, 11: 
“In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is 
fallen, and close up the breaches thereof, and I will raise up 
the ruins thereof; and I will build it as in the days of old.” 
Obadiah xvii, 21: “But upon Mount Zion shall be deliver¬ 
ance, and there shall be holiness, and the house of Jacob shall 
possess their possessions; and the saviours shall come up on 
Mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom 
shall be the Lord’s.” 

“As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s 
belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights 
in the heart of the earth” — type of the resurrection of which 
Christ was the first fruits. Micah iv: “For behold, the Lord 
cometh out of his place, and will come down and tread upon 
the high places of the earth, and the mountains shall be 
molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft as wax before 
the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. 
Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abra¬ 
ham, which thou hast sworn to our fathers from the days of 
old.” Nahum i: “ The mountains quake at him, and the hills 
melt, and the earth is burned at his presence ; yea, the world, 
and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indig¬ 
nation \ and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger \ His 
fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down 
by him.” Hab. ii: “For behold, the earth shall be filled 
with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. 
His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his 


God and the World. 


433 


praise, and his brightness was as the light. Before him went 
the pestilence and burning coals at his feet; he stood, and 
measured the earth ; and beheld, and drove asunder the 
nations, and the everlasting mountains were scattered; the 
perpetual hills did bow. His ways are everlasting.’’ Zeph. 
iii, 4: “ Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad 
and rejoice with all the heart. O daughter of Jerusalem, the 
Lord hath taken away thy judgments ; he hath cast out thine 
enemies. The king of Israel, the Lord, is in the midst of 
thee ; thou shalt not see evil any more.. In that day it shall 
be said to Jerusalem, fear thou not; and to Zion, let not thine 
hand be slack; the Lord thy God in the midst of thee is 
mighty ; he will save ; he will rejoice over thee with joy ; he 
will rest in his love ; he will joy over him with singing. The 
great day of the Lord is near ; it is near and hasteth greatly. 
Even the voice of the day of the Lord, the mighty man shall 
cry then bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of 
trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day 
of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and thick 
darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced 
cities and against the high towers. Neither their silver nor 
their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s 
wrath.” Haggai xxi, 22: “ Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of 
Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth, and I 
will overthrow the throne of kingdoms ; and I will destroy the 
strength of the kingdom of the heathen, and I will overthrow 
the chariots and those that ride on them ; and the horses and 
the riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his 
brother. In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, will I take 
thee, O Zerubbabel (type of Christ), my servant, saith the 
Lord, and I will make thee as a signet, for I have chosen thee, 
saith the Lord of hosts.” Zech. ii, 10-13: “ Sing and rejoice, 
O daughter of Zion, for lo, I come, and I will dwell in the 
midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be 
joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people ; and 
I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the 
Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee, and the Lord shall 
55 


434 


The Philosophy of 


inherit Jacob his portion in the holy land, and shall choose 
Jerusalem again. Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord, for 
he is raised up out of his holy habitation.” Mai. iv, 1-3: 
“ For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and 
all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; 
and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord 
of hosts; that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. 
But unto you that fear my name shall the son of righteousness 
arise, with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and 
grow up as calves of the stall, and ye shall tread down the 
wicked ; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet 
in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.” 

Here we have the concurrent testimony of all the holy 
prophets since the world began, both as to the certainty of 
the restitution of the world, to what it was before being cursed 
for man’s offense, and presenting in the clearest light the true 
nature of the restored world, which most perfectly corres¬ 
ponds with the great revelation of the new heavens and new 
earth contained in the two last chapters of the apocalypse. 
That this is the most important theme of prophetic vision is 
proved by the fact that it is the only one about which all the 
prophets under the inspiration of God write. Indeed some 
of them write about nothing else, Enoch, for instance. 


God and ijie World. 


435 


CHAPTER XLIX. 

THE PROMINENT SUPERIORITY GIVEN TO THIS SUBJECT IN 
THE BIBLE. 

But the great argument which presents the superiority of 
this subject is, that while but a few of the prophets describe 
clearly the first advent of Jesus and his humiliation, all sing 
in grand and glowing raptures, and in the most minute delinea¬ 
tion of His glorious reign, and while a few verses are occupied 
in descriptions of his suffering, even by Isaiah, who draws 
the picture more large and in detail than any other, the great 
portion of his prophecy being taken up in glowing descrip¬ 
tions of the great restitution. This is indeed what we might 
expect to find, when it is considered that it is the great end 
for which every thing else was mere preparation, including 
the sufferings and humiliation of Christ. Look at the magni¬ 
tude of the work to be accomplished at the return of the Lord 
from heaven, prefaced by the prophetic declaration: “ Behold, 
the Lord shall come with strong hand and his arm shall rule 
for him ; behold his reward is with him and Ms worTt before 
Mm.” The Hew Jerusalem mansions must be brought which 
Jesus went away to prepare. At his approach the heavens 
are rolled together like a parchment scroll, and amid flaming 
fire pass away with a great noise. The atmospheric heavens, 
which now obscures human vision, being gone, every eye shall 
see the great white throne upon which is seated the 

“ Awful Judge of quick and dead.” 

The righteous dead are to be raised immortal. The living 
righteous changed into the same nature. The wicked are 
now raised and summoned before the Judge. Devils are 
released from “ under their chains of darkness,” and also 
appear there to receive their doom. 


436 


The Philosophy of 


The saints are with the Judge. “Know ye not,” says Paul, 
“that the saints shall judge angels” (fallen angels). This vast 
congregation of the wicked, both devils and men, now receive 
their last dread doom — “ Depart from me, ye cursed, into 
everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels;” and 
these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the 
righteous into life eternal. 

The burning of the world now takes place, and from this 
second chaos God creates a new world, adapted in infinite 
wisdom as the best possible abode, both for himself and his 
saints, in the universe. Christ and the glorified now descend 
from heaven with the golden city upon the new earth. 

In this consummation is seen the force and adaptation of 
our Lord’s prayer, whose petitions cannot be superseded by 
being fulfilled, and hence all nations and ages may use it, 
and, when used, every man should understand that he prays 
for time, with all its scenes, to end, and that of eternity to 
begin. “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it 
is done in heaven,” which can only be in the new heavens 
and earth, “wherein dwelleth righteousness,” closing with 
the acknowledgment “For thine is the kingdom, and the 
power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen.” Thus ful¬ 
filled, “We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, 
because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and has 
reigned. And they sang a new song, saying, Thou art 
worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof, for 
thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood 
out of every kindred, tongue, and people, and nation, and 
hast made us unto our God, kings and priests ; and we shall 
reign on the earth.” Thus is fulfilled God’s new testament 
and covenant made with Abraham, “In thee shall all 
nations be blessed,” signed and sealed with the blood of 
Jesus, the second testator—“the great high priest of our 
profession.” Here we behold how harmoniously blended 
and connected is the great system of inspired truth; like a 
perfectly attuned instrument, strike one of its chords and all 
others vibrate in unison. Strike one truth and immediately 


God and the World. 


437 


you are surrounded by a multitude of witnesses giving in 
corroborative testimony. One of the leading characteristics 
of revealed truth is, that all its doctrines are connected with 
the design' God proposes to accomplish with the present 
world and its inhabitants, and from which consideration they 
derive their importance, power and intelligence. For instance, 
if there is no resurrection of the dead, as Paul puts it, then 
Christ is not risen, and is therefore still dead, and the whole 
gospel scheme is a sublime failure. 

Why should God take care of his dead saints if death were 
an eternal sleep ? Why should men subject themselves to 
sacrifices and preparation for a future state if to-morrow they 
die, never to live again ? The intermediate state of the dead, 
whether of spirit, soul or body, or in whatever it consists, 
derives its only significance from this predetermined end, as 
the only ground of the Christian’s hope, and from which all 
present happiness of the saints has its source. Take away 
this and eternal gloom settles around the human spirit, involv¬ 
ing man in hopeless despair. 

We hold that there is no falling back to the future state of 
heathen philosophy, if the future of the Christian, subsequent 
to the resurrection, fails, for it had its origin in the corruption 
of God’s revelation concerning it. All the sacrificial blood 
heathenism ever shed originated in the typical announcement 
of Christ’s blood, shed from the foundation of the world, 
which was instituted in the garden of Eden. “Abel offered 
unto God an acceptable sacrifice, the firstling of his flock,” 
and when we consider the fact that the great family of man 
diverged from this common origin and center, we can easily 
account for the fact that all proper ideas of a resurrection 
should have been lost, and more especially when it is remem¬ 
bered that this knowledge was not written until the days of 
Moses, but was traditionary during the first three thousand 
years of the world, and this is strengthened by taking into 
the account the fact that one great class of the Jewish 
teachers (the Sadducees), who had free access to the scriptures 
written up to the time of Christ, did not believe either in 


The Philosophy of 


438 

angels or spirits, or in the resurrection of the dead, the legit¬ 
imate inference from which is that it was essential to the 
proper understanding of the nature of the future state, 
declared by God to the prophets, that the world should have 
been furnished with the teachings of Christ and the apostles 
concerning it, hence the declaration, “Life and immortality 
are brought to light by the gospel.” From these considera¬ 
tions, can we come to any other conclusion than that the 
speculative philosophy of any age or individual, in relation to 
a future state, is without authority if it differs in the least 
degree from this inspired revelation of its nature, and it were 
just as reasonable to quote Socrates and Plato, against Jesus 
and Paul, in relation to the future state, as to give Plato’s 
theory of the solar system preference over that of Newton ? 

A congeniality of nature, rendered such by the power of 
divine grace, can but long for the time when it will be put in 
possession of an inheritance “incorruptible, undefiled and 
that fadeth not away, ready to be revealed in the last time.” 
“ Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into 
the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for 
them that love him, but he hath revealed them unto us by his 
spirit.” The spirit inspired the prophets to write the descrip¬ 
tion of its glories. The disciples, however, confounded it 
with a temporal kingdom, which would make the Jewish 
nation superior to all others, such as it was in the days of 
Solomon; and even after the resurrection of Jesus they 
asked: “ Wilt thou, at this time, restore again the kingdom 
to Israel?” But when the revealing spirit came it corrected 
this error, and they then understood that the patriarchal and 
prophetic promises related, not to this world, but to that 
which is to come; not to the Jerusalem that now is, but to 
the New Jerusalem which is above, and, therefore, Peter, as 
well as all of the others, wrote that it was to be “revealed in 
the last time,” and the faith of the church of all ages was 
directed to look for the grace which was to be brought unto 
them at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 

Of course it is impossible for the human mind to entertain 


God and the World. 


439 


proper conceptions of such a state of things as the immortal 
inheritance proposes, surrounded as we are by every thing in 
the widest contrast to it, rendering our analogies altogether 
against its realization, we are conversant with nothing but 
death and destruction, and their necessary incidental derange¬ 
ment; the curse devouring the earth itself, under which it 
u waxeth old as doth a garment,” and as a vesture destined 
to be folded up and changed. 

There are various philosophical arguments which prove 
conclusively that the resources of the earth will fail to main¬ 
tain the multitudinous population which will come upon it, 
on the supposition that men will be governed by the principles 
of virtue and morality. The continual wasting away of the 
hills and shores of the rivers and streams carrying these vast 
deposits into the oceans must eventually fill them up and 
flood the world. The obvious increased derangement of the 
seasons intimate one to come wherein vegetation will be im¬ 
possible. The eventual exhaustion of the coal mines indi¬ 
cates the same catastrophe. 

To meet these emergencies there are no compensatory ele¬ 
ments in nature, and flom either one of them, as well as many 
others which we might mention, comes the inevitable destruc¬ 
tion of the race. But long before the curse will thus do its 
devouring work God interferes, just as the original creation 
demanded, and re-creates it into the new heavens and new 
earth. 

This same destiny awaits man himself, if his successive gen¬ 
erations, as we have intimated, are never checked. Strictly 
speaking, the progression of man is a philosophical impossi¬ 
bility, which implies that the whole man must be equally 
developed — mentally, morally, and physically. According 
to these conditions, if mankind were truly progressing, the 
statistics would show that his physical nature is gradually 
improving ; so, that as a race, especially within the range of 
the highest civilization, such as we have in the United States, 
men would be more and more free from disease. Indeed, 
these would become less numerous, and less destructive of 


440 


The Philosophy of 


life, because there would be greater physical robustness to 
resist their attack, and correspondingly less and less would 
be the number of physicians. Effectual remedies would be 
discovered to cure the old diseases, and no new ones would 
enter the list, because these must always be preceded by new 
features of physical derangement. With such physical prog¬ 
ress increased age would be the result, and a corresponding 
increase of inhabitants in the world, requiring an increased 
production of food and material support, and which would 
correspondingly exhaust its resources; which fact, of itself, 
antagonizes those very resources for its maintenance, present¬ 
ing us with a demonstrative argument, proving the extinction 
of the race. 

But such physical development also necessitates strict obe¬ 
dience to the physical laws of the human constitution. To 
meet these conditions men must practice self-denial, which, 
for instance, will not permit the use of tobacco or alcoholic 
drinks, or the indulgence of any habit, or passion, which in 
any degree weakens the vital forces of the physical constitu¬ 
tion. 

But what do we behold, through the civilized world, but 
every thing in the widest contrast to this, and increasing in a 
fearful ratio. This indulgence of course weakens and degen¬ 
erates the moral powers, deranging the nervous system, and 
rendering men victims to acquired habits. An illustration of 
this may be seen in the fact that thousands of ministers of the 
gospel have not the moral courage to abandon the injurious 
and filthy habit of using tobacco, while acknowledging it to 
be such. Indeed, so rapidly is this habit increasing that it 
bids fair to become universal. What hope can there be, there¬ 
fore, of improvement in this respect, and especially when it is 
considered that the longer and more it is indulged, the weaker 
grows the power of resistance. And what is true of tobacco 
is more awfully of alcoholic drinks. We can therefore have 
no rational hope of the physical and moral development of 
our race, unless human nature changes, and this nothing can 
do but the power of the gospel, and that cannot restrain multi- 


Gob and the World. 441 

tudes of Christians, and even multitudes of its ministers, from 
thus deteriorating the ratce. 

The relations between the moral, physical and mental 
powers of the human system are such that when the former 
retrogrades the latter must follow. Nothing but a vigor¬ 
ous mind, and the increased desire for knowledge, and which 
is so great that its activity weakens the physical constitu¬ 
tion, and this again reciprocally weakens the power of 
mental development. Hence arises the cause of the frequency 
of shocks of apoplexy, the result of severe mental excitement 
and application at the expense of physical powers. Hence, 
too, the causes for the numerous new diseases in our age, and 
the malignant form of them all, and the consequent demand 
for various systems of medical treatment, eventuating in the 
unequaled increase of physicians, and in the nature of things 
must all go on and develop its harvest; but, instead of its being 
one of mental, moral and physical power, it will be one of an 
extinct race. 

This retrogressive degeneracy of nations and the race, polit¬ 
ically, morally and religiously, is clearly and forcibly por¬ 
trayed by the metallic construction of the great image of 
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, as revealed to and interpretated by 
the prophet Daniel, presenting the map of universal empire, 
and which contrasts widely with the theory of a grand human 
development, whose ideal is to be realized when the universal 
race of man, living at some future period, shall arrive at a 
perfect brotherhood of sociality, virtue and religion. It must 
also be remembered that the nations prefigured by this image 
were not only to succeed each other, but in their career to run 
parallel with the history and duration of the present world, 
and also that they were strong or weak, pure or corrupt as 
they regarded or disregarded the instructions communicated 
from the living God by inspired visions to his prophets, and 
which were always in opposition to those coming from the 
priests of idolatry. 

We have a very striking illustration of this contest at the 
very commencement of this march of empire between the idol 
56 


442 


The Philosophy of 


worship of deified men and that of the true God. The idola¬ 
trous priests and corrupt political demagogues of Babylon 
formed a conspiracy to destroy the prophet of God, and so 
far succeeded as to have him cast into the den of hungry 
lions, but from which he was rescued by the interposition of 
the God of heaven, in consequence of which the king issued 
the following decree: “Then King Darius wrote unto all 
people, nations and languages that dwell on the earth : peace 
be multiplied unto you ; I make a decree that in every domin¬ 
ion of my kingdom, men tremble and fear before the God of 
Daniel, for he is the living God and steadfast forever, and his 
kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion 
shall be even unto the end ; he delivereth and rescueth and 
worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath 
delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.” 

So great was the delight of the king at Daniel’s prophetic 
revelation of his dream and its import that he fell upon his 
face and worshiped Daniel, and commanded that they 
should offer an oblation of sweet odors unto him, and ex¬ 
claimed, “ of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods and 
a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing he could 
reveal this secret.” Daniel having been brought into the 
palace, tells the king his dream, and thus interprets it: 
“Thou, 0 king, sawest and behold a great image, whose 
brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the form 
thereof was terrible. This image’s head was of fine gold, his 
breast and arms of silver, his belly and sides of brass, his legs 
of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest 
till that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, 
which smote the image upon the feet that were of iron and 
clay, and break them to pieces; then was the iron, the clay, 
the brass, the silver and the gold broken to pieces together, 
and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and 
the wind carried them away, that no place was found for 
them, and the stone that smote the image became a great 
mountain, and filled the whole earth.” 

In the interpretation, the prophet says to Nebuchadnezzar, 


God and tee World. 


443 

as the king of the Chaldean empire, “Thou art this head of 
gold; and after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to 
thee ; and another kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule 
over all the earth ; and the fourth kingdom shall be strong as 
iron ; forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all 
things, so shall it break in pieces and bruise; and, whereas, 
thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potter’s clay and part 
of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, but there shall be in it 
the strength of the iron. Forasmuch as thou sawest the iron 
mixed with miry clay, and as the toes of the feet were part of 
iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong 
and partly broken. And in the days of these kings shall the 
God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be de¬ 
stroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; 
but it shall break in pieces all these kingdoms, and it shall 
stand forever. And, forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone 
was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it break 
in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver and the gold, 
the great God hath made known to the king what shall come 
to pass hereafter; and the dream is certain, and the interpre¬ 
tation thereof sure.” 

As we have already shown that these nations, thus repre¬ 
sented, exist from the days of this Chaldean king successively 
till the end of the world, the last of which in its broken 
and dismembered condition is to be. superseded by the estab¬ 
lishment of the eternal kingdom of God, we only introduce 
the subject here to show, by the very nature of these symbols, 
that the march of empire through the world, thus brought to 
view, and which is, therefore, God’s history of it, given in 
advance, is to be one of degeneracy and not progress. First 
we have the gold ; second, the silver ; third, the brass ; fourth, 
the iron and clay. 

Thus does the instruction, coming from the God of heaven, 
contradict that of men, most clearly delineating this moment¬ 
ous truth and conclusively establishing the fact that the march 
of nations was and is to be one of decline and decay, pro¬ 
duced by the enervating influence of moral and physical cor 


444 


The Philosophy of 


ruption, instead of being the result of those vital elements 
essential to the production of perfect human society, and thus 
harmonizing with the historic fact that republics corrupt faster, 
and therefore die sooner, than monarchies. 

This teaching of course leaves no room for the imaginary 
development of a perfect generation of mankind at any period 
of the present world, but on the contrary shuts us up to the 
conclusion that either God or political and religious prophets 
are mistaken in their calculations and predictions as to what 
kind of a race shall grow out of the elements of human society. 
And have they not seen a vain vision and a lying divination, 
and then to give it sanctity they say: “The Lord saith it, and 
the Lord hath not sent them, and the Lord hath not spoken, 
but they have prophesied out of their own hearts and have 
seen nothing.” We thus quote from the prophet Ezekiel, in 
substance, who was inspired to correct this false sentiment, 
and to prophesy against those who thus prophesied of the 
times afar off, seeing visions of universal peace, virtue, intelli¬ 
gence and of perfect human sympathy ; in a word, an unself¬ 
ishness as wide as the world and extensive as the race.” “ Say 
unto them who thus prophesy that there is no peace, saith the 
Lord o£ hosts, and that the storms of the last great day shall 
sweep away the refuge of lies with which the nations were 
deceived, and beneath whose crumbling walls these false 
prophets shall be overwhelmed who put far off the evil day.” 
Peter corroborates this by saying : “ For when they shall say 
peace and safety (in regard to the coming of the day of God), 
then sudden destruction cometh upon them.” “For as a 
thief in the night shall it come upon all them that dwell upon 
the face of the whole earth.” 

We repeat, that the degeneracy and consequent extinction of 
the human race is inherent in man’s physical derangement, as 
well as in all the elements of human society, and the war 
that external nature forever wages against the life of the race. 
For a few years physical robustness withstands its deadly 
attacks, but in a few more the most powerful mortal suc¬ 
cumbs to the combined ravages of physical derangement and 


Gnj) and the World. 


445 


lie falls a lifeless victim to its relentless power, and as we have 
shown that all the derangement of human growth increases 
with the march of generations, and what but an extinct race 
does it indicate ? But we say again, long before this sad result 
is reached, God proposes to bring out of this race, now groaning 
under the curse, a living and immortal nation, and to intro¬ 
duce them into an inheritance perfectly corresponding to their 
nature, wherein they shall no more say “I am sick.” This 
is the “new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth 
righteousness.” Then let the curse devour the earth— earth¬ 
quakes repeat thy mighty shocks, ye meteorological disorders 
march on in the fearful development of derangement, groan on 
thou sickly earth for thy promised redemption, ye warbling 
songsters, that tremble on the wing, sing on for the woods of 
Eden, ye souls from beneath the altar chant on the mournful 
martyr’s requiem, how long, O Lord, how long? Ye living 
saints have a voice in the universal groaning for the new crea¬ 
tion, the accomplishment of which will be God’s apology for 
the permission of the long six thousand years of the reign of 
death and woe. 


446 


The Philosophy of 




CHAPTER L. 

THE DOCTRINE OF REGENERATION. 

The doctrine indicated by this term is contained in bnt two 
passages of scripture, and only has its incipient application 
in the present world, and, like all other principles proposed 
by inspiration, looks into the world to come for its grand 
realization. u The first Adam was made a living soul.” 
From him, in his fallen condition, is our race generated, 
deriving their whole being of soul, body and spirit from this 
corrupt source, and, therefore, involving the necessity of an 
entire regeneration in order to bring men back again into 
harmony with their creator, which, of course; can only be 
realized when the whole man, soul, body and spirit, is made 
immortal. This is the work of the second Adam, “The 
quickening spirit, the Lord from heaven.” This work com¬ 
mences with the spiritual nature in the present world, propos¬ 
ing to man, who is dead in trespasses and sins, a resurrection 
or a quickening into spiritual life of his whole moral being, so 
that his feelings, instead of being averse to holy things, 
aspires God-ward, resulting in a complete transformation of 
his moral nature from the image of the first Adam into that 
of the second. This is the limit of the regeneration applica¬ 
ble to men in the present world. But the great work it con - 
templates comprehends all Christ proposes to do for his saints 
on their entrance into the world which survives this, includ¬ 
ing, also, the renovation or regeneration of the world itself. 

With these remarks we introduce the passages thus con¬ 
nected. Titus iii, 5: “ Not by works of righteousness which 
we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the 
washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.” 


God and the World. 


447 


Here we see that the expression, “the washing of regenera¬ 
tion,” not the regeneration itself, conveys the same idea as 
that of the “renewing of the Holy Ghost,” and by the con¬ 
nection in which it is here used, shows that it proposes to so 
change the moral nature of man that he will be, as it is also 
expressed, “A new creature in Christ Jesus.” 

The idea is more fully brought out in the third chapter and 
fourth verse: ‘ ‘ For we ourselves, also, were sometimes foolish, 
disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, 
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another; but 
after that the kindness and love of God, our Saviour, toward 
man appeared.” Then follows the words containing the 
regeneration, through which this great moral change was pro¬ 
duced, not only in Paul and his cotemporary brethren, but in 
all other converted sinners. The other passage is recorded 
Matt, xix, 27, 28 : “Then answered Peter and said unto him, 
behold we have forsaken all and followed thee, what shall 
we have therefore3 “And Jesus said unto him, verily I sa}^ 
unto you, ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when 
the son of man shall sit upon the throne of his glory, ye also 
shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of 
Israel.” [We have changed the comma from after the word 
“regeneration,” placing it after the word “me,” which is 
necessary to give the true meaning of the passage.] Jesus 
had just been discoursing on the qualification necessary to an 
entrance into the kingdom of God, and he here uses the term 
“ regeneration” to signify the same place. The Son of Man is 
now seated on the throne of grace, still in comparative humili¬ 
ation, seeking the salvation of lost men. But in the regenera¬ 
tion he is to sit on the throne of his glory, in reference to 
which he says: “To him thfit overcometli will I grant to sit 
with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set 
down with my Father on his throne.” The throne of Jesus 
is in his own kingdom and in the regenerated world, “that 
which is to come.” “ Then he shall have dominion from sea 
to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.” The 
prophet sees and thus describes his entrance into his king- 


448 


The Philosophy of 


dom. Dan. vii, 9, 10: “I beheld till the thrones were cast 
down and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was 
white as snow and the hair of his head like the pure wool, his 
throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning 
fire ; a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him; 
thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand 
times ten thousand stood before him; the judgment was set 
and the books were opened.” 

In explanation of this designation, “Ancient of Days,” as 
applying to Christ, he said, while conversing with the Jewish 
teachers, “ Before Abraham was, lam,” and in the Proverbs 
he is represented as saying, 4 ‘ When he (God) laid the foun¬ 
dations of the world, I was there.” There is no question 
but that the twelve apostles, including Paul, whom God 
choose to fill the place of Judas, and not Matthias, whom the 
disciples prematurely cast lots to fill, will be peculiarly dis¬ 
tinguished in the kingdom of Jesus. This is not only recog¬ 
nized in the passage under consideration, which sits them 
upon twelve thrones, judging the tribes of Israel, but in Rev. 
xxi, 14, their names are to be distinguished. “And the 
wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the 
names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” 

The race of man bears the image of the first Adam, inherit¬ 
ing his Mien nature, the generation of the curse, susceptible 
of dissolution and death, the result of this derangement of 
nature and estrangement from God. But the saints are to 
bear the image of the second Adam. “The Lord from 
heaven,” who, in his great work of regeneration, proposes to 
counteract all this, and to render them incorruptible, immor¬ 
tal, and, therefore, endowed with the “ power of an endless 
life.” “This is the generation of them that seek thy face, O 
God of Jacob.” 


God and the World. 


449 


CHAPTER LI. 

THE NEW BIRTH. 

The doctrine of the new birth, like that of the regeneration, 
contemplates the resurrection of the dead in order to its com¬ 
pletion, and, like that, commences here by making new spirit¬ 
ual creatures of men, begetting in them a life of which they had 
no more prior conception than the physically dead could have 
of animal life. It is the commencement of the new creation, 
terminating only in the entire new creation of the soul, body 
and spirit, united in an immortal being, the fruits of the res¬ 
urrection of life. It is this clearly revealed end which relieves 
the doctrine of its mysteries and insignificance which attaches 
to it, if circumscribed within the mere limits of Christian 
experience in the present life. 

The position we assume in regard to the teachings of this 
doctrine may be stated thus: The moral change -it proposes 
applicable to the present life does not exempt its subjects 
from physical derangement and death; but when consum¬ 
mated at the beginning of the new world * comprehends all 
this. That Jesus experienced this grand end of the new birth 
himself, and that this birth of his is so connected with that of 
his saints that it becomes a pledge of theirs. That this resur¬ 
rection harvest of the righteous, according to prophetic pre¬ 
diction, is u the nation to be born in a day.” And, lastly, 
that there is a great deal more written in relation to the con¬ 
summation of the new birth in the world to come, than that 
applicable to its incipient spiritual work in the present life, 
though this is indispensable to the immortal. 

We naturally introduce this subject with the conversation 
between Jesus and Nicodemus. John iii: “ Jesus answered 
and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee*except a 
57 


450 


The Philosophy of 


man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. (Here 
at the very outset, we see that the new birth is connected with 
the kingdom of God.) Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say 
unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he 
cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” The being born of 
water here, is not water baptism, but the natural birth, the 
comparison and contrast between which constituted the bur¬ 
den of this conversation. “How can a man be born of the 
flesh (natural birth) when he is old?” was the difficulty in the 
mind of this Jewish teacher. The Master’s answer showed 
that, if this were possible, it would, nevertheless, be a natural 
birth of the flesh. 4 ‘ That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; 
marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. The 
wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound 
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it 
goeth; so is every one that is born of the spirit.” The precise 
philosophy of this change cannot be explained any more than 
can that of the blowing of the wind. The general principle 
of the motion of the air produced by its expansion by heat, 
and contraction by cold, we may, however, understand, but 
precisely where any given current of air begins to move or 
will end is beyond the power of science or philosophy to 
determine ; and this is the feature of the phenomena used by 
Jesus to show the impossibility of comprehending the precise 
point at which every man’s spiritual change commences or 
ends. The actual change, however, through which he passes 
in being born of the spirit, a man may know just as well as 
he knows that the wind blows, because susceptible of the test 
of his senses of hearing and feeling. “He hears the sound 
thereof,” and feels its palpable effects; “so is every one that 
is born of the spirit.” The penitent hears the voice of God, 
saying to his conscious guilt, “Thy sins which are many are 
all forgiven thee;” and he, relieved, looks up and says: 
“Abba, Father.” The change in his feelings is as palpable as 
the blowing of the wind. To suppose a man whose feelings 
are all in a state of aversion to the government of God, and 
nowise in sympathy with his holy nature, and, therefore, 


God and the World. 


451 


afraid to meet him in judgment, can be so changed that he 
will be more attached to him, his will and laws than any thing 
else in the universe, and he not know it, not only contradicts , 
these plain teachings of Jesus, but indicates an almost idiotic 
state of mind. Mcodemus said unto Jesus marvelously: 
“How can these things be?” His answer was, “Art thou 
a teacher in Israel, and knowest not these things?” How, 
unless it was the consummation of the new birth, introducing 
its subjects with their spiritual and immortal bodies into the 
kingdom of God, which was in the mind of Jesus, the reproof 
thus administered had no force ; because, the new birth, in its 
spiritual phase, was contained nowhere in the scriptures as 
then existing, and its application here to the spiritual change 
of man’s moral nature, and to the gospel dispensation, in¬ 
cluding all nations, w^as, for the first time, announced by the 
great teacher to man. 

From the apostles, who sat three and a half years under the 
teaching of Jesus, we have more light upon the subject. John i, 

3, 9 : “ Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his 
seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born 
of God.” This declaration of course comprehends the entire 
new birth, including the immortal resurrection, in which state 
alone men “cannot sin .” “Beloved, let us love one another, 
for love is of God ; and every one that loveth is born of God, 
and knoweth God. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the 
Christ is born of God, and every one that loveth him that 
begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him ; for whosoever 
is born of God overcometh the world : and this is the victory 
that overcometh the world, even our faith. We know that 
whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten 
of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him 
not.” John i, 13: “Which was born, not of blood nor of 
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” 
Peter i, 1, 23 : “ Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but 
of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth 
forever.” These passages evidently relate to that phase of the 
new birth applicable to Christian experience in the present 


452 


The Philosophy of 


life, some of which, however, have a remote allusion to the 
immortal state, but we will now introduce those which connect 
the new birth with the resurrection of the body, and which 
also show the relation of that of Jesus to it. Rom. viii, 29 : 
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be 
conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the first 
born among many brethren.” 

The subject of this predestination we see has no reference to 
the conversion of sinners, but to the conformation of Christ’s 
brethren to his own immortal image, subsequent to his resur¬ 
rection from the dead. As this birth of Christ was from the 
dead, and as we now bear the image of the first Adam (the 
earthy), so shall we also bear the image of the second Adam, 
the Lord from heaven. It is therefore at this event God has 

I 

predestinated that his saints shall be conformed to the image 
of his son ; “ For as we have been planted together in the like¬ 
ness of his death, so shall we be also in the likeness of his 
resurrection.” The idea taught in these passages is, that God 
foreknew how to raise Jesus and his people from the dead, 
and accordingly predestinated or predetermined its execution. 
The next verse is : “Them he also called.” This call was, or 
will be, from the dead. For the Lord himself shall descend 
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and 
the trump of God, and “All them that are in their graves 
shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come forth,” 
and Job says, “Thou shalt call and I will answer thee.” The 
connection shows that it refers to the resurrection. Those thus 
called he also glorified. “ It is sown in weakness, but raised 
in glory.” Them he also justified. They here have part in 
the ££ resurrection of the just.” ££ But now is Christ risen from 
the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept.” Here 
Christ is represented as being born from the dead, and that he 
is the first fruits among many brethren. This birth being his 
.resurrection, of course that of his brethren must be the same. 

Col. i, 15: “ Christ who is the image of the incorruptible 
God, the first born of every creature.” Of course this is not 
the first birth of Christ, who was thus born only about eighteen 


God and the World. 


453 


hundred years ago, in the “ City of David,” and it must there¬ 
fore be his second birth, which was from the dead. This is 
positively declared in the eighteenth verse. “ And he is the 
head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the first 
born f rom the dead , that in all things he might have the pre¬ 
eminence.” Now, as Christ is the first born among many 
brethren, and the first born from the dead, and this new birth 
of his, and their’s consequent upon it, being from the dead, 
therefore, to complete the new birth of the saints necessitates 
their immortal resurrection. The expression here, that Christ 
is “the beginning,” we shall understand by the following 
passages, which show of what he is the beginning. Rev. i, 5: 
“ And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the 
first begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the 
earth.” Ch. iii, 14 : “ And unto the angel of the church of 
the Laodiceans write, these things saith the Amen, the faith¬ 
ful witness, the beginning of the creation of God.” 

We have now the revealed exposition of the whole subject 
of the new birth. Jesus Christ is the first begotten from the 
dead, and the beginning of the creation of God. Of course, 
of the new creation, the first fruits of the immortal resurrec¬ 
tion harvest. These are his brethren who still sleep in Jesus. 
He was not the first that was raised from the dead, for he 
raised some to life before his own death, but this was only to 
natural life, just as susceptible of death as before. But the 
idea is that he was the first to be raised to immortality, to die 
no more. Hence Jesus was the first fruits of them that slept. 
The first born among many brethren. The first born from the 
dead. The first born of every creature. The beginning of 
the creation of God, as it is variously expressed. With this 
view we are able to appreciate the sublime declaration. “I 
am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning 
and the end. I am he that was dead, and am alive forever 
more. And have the keys of hell and death.” Here we have 
presented the new birth of Jesus Christ, and it is the pledge 
of that of his saints, “ for as the Father raised up Christ from 
the dead, so will he also raise us up by Christ.” (Paul.) And 


454 


The Philosophy of 


all according to the order of the resurrection, running thus : 
“Christ the first fruits, afterward they that are Christ’s at his 
coming.” Isaiah sees and describes this birth from the dead 
of all God’s people, as the righteous nation to be born in a 
day. Ch. lxiv : “Hear the word of the Lord ye that tremble 
at his word. Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out 
for my name’s sake, said, let the Lord be glorified (Jesus 
gives the explanation to this, 4 he that killeth you will think 
that he doth God’s service’), but he shall appear for your 
joy, and they shall be ashamed. A voice of the Lord that 
rend^reth recompense to his enemies. A voice of noise from 
the temple ; who hath heard such a thing ? who hath heard 
such things ? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one 
day, or shall a nation be born at once ? (Then comes the con¬ 
firmatory response.) For as soon as Zion travailed she 
brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the birth and 
not cause to bring forth? saith the Lord. Rejoice ye with 
Jerusalem and be glad with her, all ye that love her, rejoice, 
all ye that mourn for her, for thus saith the Lord, behold I 
will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the 
Gentiles like a flowing stream, as one whom his mother com- 
forteth, so will I comfort you, and ye' shall be comforted in 
Jerusalem (New Jerusalem). And when ye shall see this, 
your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like 
an herb, and the hand of the Lord shall be known toward 
his servants, and his indignation toward his enemies. For 
behold, the Lord shall come with fire, and with his chariots 
like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his 
rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword 
will the Lord plead with all flesh, and the slain of the Lord 
will be many. For as the new heavens and the new earth, 
which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so 
shall your seed and your name remain.” 

Here we have the consummation of the new birth, as pre¬ 
sented in the scriptures of truth. Infinitely important, beau¬ 
tiful, philosophic, tangible and harmonious. 


God and the World. 


455 


CHAPTER LII. 

THE DOCTRINE OF ADOPTION AND REDEMPTION. 

The doctrine of adoption and redemption are so connected 
by apostolic exposition that we propose to give them this 
consideration, not being willing to make unwarrantable 
distinctions. The doctrine of adoption comprehends the 
redemption of the saints, with their immortal bodies, while 
that of redemption not only includes these, but also that of 
their inheritance. God made the world and man upon it, and 
had he not sinned, the righteous race would have lived out 
their probation, as the holy angels have done, and possessed 
it as their eternal inheritance. To suppose it was not the 
best place, in every way adapted to meet the wants and 
highest aspirations of man’s nature, would be a reflection 
upon the wisdom and goodness of the Creator. It is not 
unreasonable to suppose, as we have intimated, that it was 
his design, when a race sufficiently numerous existed, and 
had served out a legal probation, by strict adherence and 
obedience to the requirements and interdictions of their 
Sovereign, that they would have been changed into immortal 
beings, no more susceptible of trial or death, just, as those 
will be who live at the time this great change takes place, 
exempt from death, mentioned thus by the apostle: “And 
we, which are alive and remain, shall be changed in a 
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for 
the trumpet shall sound, and we shall be changed.” 

These exceptions from death are also referred to by Jesus, 
when about to raise Lazarus from the dead: “I am the resur¬ 
rection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were 
dead, yet shall he live, and he that liveth (at the time eternal 
life is conferred) and believeth in me shall never die. But 


The Philosophy of 


45(5 

sin and consequent death entered the world, and men are not 
now God’s legal, obedient children, and those who become 
such by compliance with the new requisitions, in the present 
world, receive only the spirit of adoption , being a pledge of 
their final, actual adoption and redemption in the great day 
of accounts. Their possession was also forfeited and cursed. 
“ Cursed is the ground for thy sake.” The earth shall no 
more yield her increase spontaneously, but by a heavy tax of 
toil and labor. “By the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat 
bread all the days of thy life until thou return unto the 
ground, for out of it wast thou taken — for dust thou art, 
and unto dust shalt thou return.” The most fearful derange¬ 
ment, however, was produced by the devastations of the 
flood, so fatally did that catastrophe destroy the beautiful 
world which had existed up to that event, that the apostle 
says of it: “Wherefore the world that then was being over¬ 
flowed with water perished .” To the first Adam was given 
the absolute government of the world. “And God blessed 
them and said unto them: Be fruitful and multiply and 
replenish the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over 
the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air and over every 
living thing that creepeth upon the earth,” and of course he 
was to be sovereign over the race as they, his children, came 
into being. Here was the first dominion lost by the first Adam, 
but is the predicted sovereignty of Christ, the second Adam. 
Mic. iv, 7, 8: “And I will make her that halted a remnant, 
and her that was cast far off a strong nation, and the Lord 
shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth even for¬ 
ever ; and thou tower of the flock (Christ), the stronghold of 
the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall. it come, even the first 
dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jeru¬ 
salem.” Here we have the first dominion of the earth, lost 
by Adam, but regained by Jesus. Han. vii, 27: “And 
the kingdom, and the dominion, and the greatness of the 
kingdom under the whole heaven (therefore over the whole 
earth) shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most 
High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all 


Gob and the World. 


457 


dominions shall serve and obey him. Ps. lxxii, 7, 8: “In 
his days shall the righteous flourish, with abundance of peace, 
so long as the sun endureth; he shall have dominion, also, 
from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the 
earth.” Zach. ix, 9, 10: “ Rejoice greatly, O daughter of 
Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy king 
cometh unto thee, he is just and, having salvation, lowly 
and riding upon an ass ; and his dominion shall be from sea 
to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.” God 
compelled Balaam, “who loved the wages of unrighteous¬ 
ness” offered by Balak, to curse Israel, to utter a beautiful 
prediction of Christ’s dominion : ‘ ‘And he took up his para¬ 
ble and said, Balaam, the son of Beor, hath said, he hath said 
which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of 
the Most High, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling 
into a trance but having his eyes open; I shall see him, but 
not nigh: There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter 
shall rise out of Israel; out of Jacob shall come he that 
shall have dominion.” First Peter i, 4, 5: “Blessed be the 
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according 
to his abundant mercy, hath 'begotten us again unto a lively 
hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an 
inheritance incorruptible, undefiled and that fadeth not away, 
reserved in heaven (new heaven) for you who are kept by the 
power of God, through faith, unto salvation, ready to be 
revealed in the last time. According to this, the inheritance 
had been lost, but a hope of its possession had been regained 
by Jesus —that it would be revealed (seen) in the last time. 
The fulfillment of this is thus recorded. Matt, xxv : “ Then 
shall the King say unto them on his right hand, come, ye 
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you 
from the foundation of the world” 

Here, then, is the purpose for which God made the world, 
and is the fulfillment of another prediction of Isa. xlv, 17, 18. 
“But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting sal¬ 
vation ; ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded, world with¬ 
out end (the world to come, for this present world is to have an 
58 


458 


The Philosophy of 


end). For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens : God 
himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established 
it; he created it not in vain ; he formed it to be inhabited. I 
am the Lord, and there is none else.” 

Here again we see that the inheritance of the saints and the 
kingdom of Jesus is the redeemed earth, but now it, as well as 
its predestined subjects, labor together under the curse, a for¬ 
cible picture of which is furnished by Paul, thus: Horn, viii — 
“ For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear ; 
but ye have received the spirit of adoption (not the adoption 
itself), whereby we cry Abba, Father, the spirit itself beareth 
witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God ; and 
if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with 
Christ (to the incorruptible inheritance), if so be that we sulfer 
with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon 
that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be 
compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For 
the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the mani¬ 
festation of the sons of God (the immortal subjects of the 
incorruptible kingdom), for the creature was made subject to 
vanity (and all who fail of that inheritance were absolutely 
made in vain, for this was the grand purpose of their being), 
not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the 
same in hope, because the creature itself shall also be deliv¬ 
ered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty 
of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation 
groaneth and traveleth in pain together until now, and not< 
only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the 
spirit. Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for 
the adoption (of course, then, it did not mean simply conver¬ 
sion), to wit , the redemption of our body.” This is therefore 
what it means, the redemption of the body. It is further 
explained, Eph. iv, 30: “And grieve not the holy spirit of 
God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” 
This sealing is the spirit of adoption. Chapter i, 4, 5: 

‘ ‘ According as he hath chosen us in him, before the founda¬ 
tion of the world, that we should be holy and without blame 


God and the World. 


459 

before him in love; having predestined ns nnto the adoption 
of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good 
pleasure of his will, which he hath purposed in himself; that 
in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather 
together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven 
and on earth. Even in him, in whom we also have obtained an 
inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of him 
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, that 
we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in 
Christ, in whom ye also trusted. After that ye heard the word 
of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that 
ye believed ; ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise , 
which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of 
the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory, the eyes 
of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know 
what is the hope of your calling, and what the riches of the 
glory of his inheritance in the saints, and which is the exceed¬ 
ing greatness of his power to usward who believe, according 
to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in 
Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his 
own right hand in the heavenly places far above all princi¬ 
pality and power and might and dominion, and every name 
that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is 
to come.” 

Here we have the doctrine taught that if God made the 
world and man as he proposed, he would sin and fall, and 
thereby involve the race and the world in the ruins of death 
and the curse. To meet this emergency he resolved on its 
redemption, including, also, those who in time should become 
spiritually allied with him and his government, who when 
thus sealed by the spirit of the promised inheritance, which 
gave them hope of its possession until its redemption, which 
was appointed to take place at the end of the world. The pos¬ 
session then to be revealed is already purchased (the blood of 
Christ being the price), but will not be redeemed until the 
resurrection of the dead and the creation of the new heavens 
and the new earth. Thus we see that before God laid the 


460 


The Philosophy of 


foundation of the world he provided the plan for its redemp¬ 
tion and predestinated its accomplishment, and, of course, 
depending upon no conditions, it is here called the “ world 
to come,” over which Christ is to have everlasting dominion. 
Thus we see that the doctrine of predestination has no refer¬ 
ence whatever to the present life, but teaches what God has 
undertaken to do with his dead saints, and of course pro¬ 
poses no conditions, because compliance with these, on the 
part of the dead, would be impossible. 

The preparation, in order to become subjects of this predes¬ 
tination, is thus expressed: “After that ye believed ye were 
sealed with that holy spirit of promise, unto the day of 
redemption,” and if such remained faithful unto death the 
eternal purpose of God is changelessly predetermined to call 
them, by his glorious voice, from the graves of the world, 
from the ocean’s deepest caverns or wherever else they may be 
sleeping, to life, glory, justification, or eternal absolution, 
and who are thenceforth the subjects of God’s grand redemp¬ 
tion and adoption, when the whole family of Israel are blessed 
with an eternal triumph over the ruins of death and the grave. 
That this victory is only to be obtained at this event is unmis¬ 
takably taught, also, in the following passages. Hos. xiii, 
14: “I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will 
redeem them from death; O, death I will be thy plagues, O 
grave I will be .thy destruction.” Jesus said, in reference to 
this, after he had given the disciples a chain of events reach¬ 
ing through the whole gospel dispensation, in answer to the 
questions they proposed, as to what would be the sign of his 
coming again, and of the end of the world: “ When ye shall 
see these things begin to come to pass (those events which are 
the last of prophetic history), then look up and lift up your 
heads, for your redemption dr aweth nigh” Of course those 
for whom this instruction was intended was that generation of 
men living, when those events were transpiring, by which 
they might know, not only that their redemption was nigh, 
but that, also, of the holy of all ages, including the redemp¬ 
tion of the inheritance, “the purchased possession.” “This 


God and the World. 


461 


generation (who see these events) shall not pass away till all 
these things come to pass.” “Heaven and earth shall pass 
away, but my words shall not pass away.” 

In the Mosaic type of redemption, provision was made both 
for the redemption of the forfeited inheritance, as well as those 
forfeiting it. Lev. xxv, 28 : “The land shall not be sold for¬ 
ever, for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners 
with me, and in all the land of your possessions ye shall grant 
a redemption for the land. If thy brother be waxen poor, 
and hath sold some of his possession, and if any of his kin 
come to redeem it again, one of his brethren may redeem it.” 
In accordance with the requirements of this type, Jesus, who 
was to fulfill every jot and tittle of the law, became our elder 
brother, so as to qualify him as man’s redeemer. Thus, “ For¬ 
asmuch as the children are made partakers of flesh and blood, 
he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through 
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that 
is, the devil, and deliver them who, through fear of death, 
were all their life-time subject to bondage.” 

The revelator gives us the description of this grand redemp¬ 
tion completed, including its subjects, and the inheritance. 
Rev. v, 9: “And they sung a new song, saying, thou art 
worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof, for 
thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us by thy blood out of 
every kindred and tongue and people and nation; and hast 
made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign 
on the earths 


462 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER LIII. 

THE DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT. 

It is as unquestionable, as it is sadly true, that there are 
men in every community, and their numerical strength is by 
no means insignificant, who are honestly, though reluctantly, 
skeptical, in regard to many of the doctrines purporting to be 
those of Christianity; they are men, too, holding the highest 
social and intellectual positions ; they do not, indeed, profess 
skepticism, and nothing would be more offensive than to be 
thus characterized. Multitudes of these regularly attend 
church, hire pews, and pay liberally for the support of the 
gospel; but as it is assumed by the teachers they generally 
hear that they are believers in the prominent doctrines of 
revealed religion, instead of hearing them proved to be true, 
their objections, therefore, remain undisturbed. 

It is hardly necessary that we should say that one of the 
principal objects we have had in view, in writing this book, 
has been to meet and satisfy this honest skepticism, because 
its perusal will clearly exhibit this fact, showing that we have 
taken nothing for granted, emanating from whatever source, 
or claiming whatever degree of authority, assuming the right 
to subject every thing to the most impartial investigation; 
holding to the position that every truth contained, either in 
revelation or nature, has philosophy or reason for its defense; 
and we therefore propose to investigate the doctrine of rec¬ 
onciliation in the same manner, in doing which we shall at¬ 
tempt to show that the principles it involves, and the facts as 
they exist, are essentially indispensable to the accomplish¬ 
ment of the work proposed. 

In regard to this work we believe that, if nothing had been 
revealed in a book, and was discoverable only by the rela¬ 
tions man feels he sustains to the God that made him, they 


God and the World. 


463 


would be substantially the same; but as it is a subject of rev¬ 
elation, of course we must treat it as such. We shall, how¬ 
ever, find that its assumptions, necessities, facts and effects 
are principally those which men concede to exist between 
man and his maker, and also involving his manifestation in 
Jesus Christ. 

We are asked by the class we have indicated, What virtue 
is there in the death of Christ, in itself considered, to bring 
about the salvation of men; why was the incarnation a neces¬ 
sity ; why could not God have contrived some other method 
more dignified and more becoming infinite wisdom, in order 
to reconcile this existing estrangement % 

In answer to these questions we might present one argu¬ 
ment which reasonably disposes of them, if nothing else 
could be said, which is, that this plan is perfectly adapted to 
accomplish the work designed, and that infinite wisdom, can 
but choose the best possible way of accomplishing his pur¬ 
poses ; hence this scheme ranks, in nature, with the universal 
law of the adaptation of means to ends, and which is always 
characterized by simplicity; but this is not all that can be 
said philosophically upon the subject. 

Thu aversion existing between man "and God is no more true 
than it is irreconcilable upon any principle of nature. “ God 
made man upright and in his own image, and pronounced 
him good,” but such he did not remain. What we mean by 
aversion is, that man is so afraid of God that there is nothing 
he so much dreads as to be forcibly introduced into his imme¬ 
diate presence, as into that of his fellow man. To illustrate 
this unnatural antagonism, take a man who has a natural 
father, one who has never done him any wrong, and who has 
only been the instrument of his existence, and is it possible 
that such a son should possess a dread of contact with such a 
father, and that he would infinitely prefer association with the 
lowest wretch of human kind % Here, then, we have the ^rec¬ 
onciliation existing between man and God, and which is no 
more so than that it is unnatural. Something, therefore, must 
have transpired to have produced this estrangement. Another 


464 


The Philosophy of 


fact connected with it is, that as God could not have first 
changed in his feelings and views toward man, man must 
have so changed in regard to God. The Bible assumes, as a 
reason for this, man’s disobedience of God’s laws and his con¬ 
sequent guilt, and which is perfectly illustrated in the nature 
of crime, guilt, law and government existing among mankind. 

From this it has resulted that the most prominent feature 
of this estrangement or aversion is, that man is proud, and so 
much so that he cannot, while thus remaining, submit to the 
conditions upon which his maker proposes a reconciliation. 
Now, if the plan comprehending these conditions is adapted 
to meet the necessities of the case, and will accomplish a per¬ 
fect oneness between man and God, so that man w^ould lose 
all his fears and aversion to meet God and dwell with him, 
bringing him into the most perfect sympathy with God, his 
requisitions and laws, then does it not prove that such a plan 
has in it all the elements of reason and philosophy? and 
especially does it not appear such, when it is considered that 
such are, indeed, its achievements; and, in addition to this, 
that in all the investigations,, discoveries and experiences of 
mankind in all the ages of the world, nothing else has been 
found which would produce this community of moral nature 
between God and man ? and, therefore, we are driven to the 
conclusion that, without the element of Jesus Christ in this 
plan, it would have failed to have accomplished this neces¬ 
sary union, and, therefore, God and man could never have 
dwelt together in peace and harmony. 

To illustrate this operation let us take a single sinner. 
There he stands in his pride, and in such a state of mind rec¬ 
onciliation is impossible. He must, therefore, be humbled; 
in some way this must be accomplished by his introduction 
to the especial notice of God. But suppose it should be 
announced to him by the angel Gabriel that the Almighty 
wished him to attend a royal banquet in his palace, would he 
not feel wonderfully honored, and would not his pride be pro¬ 
portionately increased ? It follows, therefore, that some other 
method of a sinner’s introduction to his God must exist, if he 
would be humbled, and in order to reconcile these parties. 


God and the World. 


465 

Now, says God, I will humble myself as infinitely as I am 
glorious, I will assume a human body in yonder world, and 
will there submit to all the ignominy and indignities the 
rebellions and wicked are disposed to inflict, and which, by 
contrast, will exhibit their depravity and my holiness. In a 
manger will I be born, among the beasts of the stall, no cer¬ 
tain dwelling place will be mine, not so much as is possessed 
by the foxes of the desert, or the birds of the air. I will 
make myself of no reputation, but will shun the rich and 
powerful and associate with the lowest classes, such as fisher¬ 
men, publicans and sinners. I shall appear so weak that a 
violent mob will arrest me, strip me of my garments and array 
me in mock royalty. They may smite, scourge and make fur¬ 
rows in my flesh ; they may reproach me, and I will make no 
defense or answer to their accusations, but, “As a lamb is 
dumb before her shearers, so will I open not my mouth.” 
To crucifixion and death will I go without a murmur, thus 
appearing more marred than the sons of men, so that, in this 
hour of my deepest humiliation, will all my friends forsake 
me and flee. Ashamed of the association, will they hide their 
faces from me, and, as a common malefactor, will I submit to 
be hung between heaven and earth; and, even after my resur¬ 
rection, will I not show myself to any of these proud hearts, 
but only to those that believe in me, so that if they are ever 
induced to become my disciples, it will not be because I am a 
risen, conquering God, which they have seen, but only, 
because I am meek and lowly in heart, I am the only way to 
God. 

If sinners could be introduced to God Almighty so as to be 
made like him in feeling and thought, and the reconciliation 
be thus effected, it must be by the reception of me in this 
extreme humiliation, and the very first step in this direction 
will produce the most profound impression, that if God, my 
maker, can thus humble himself, what am I that I should 
remain proud; seeing God thus manifested, he will heartily 
exclaim, “My Lord and my God,” and at once begin to suffer 
with me, but claiming the promise, “If we suffer with him, 

we shall also reign with him.” 

59 


466 


The Philosophy of 


From this moment, the moral reconciliation is effected, and 
God and man are made one in mind and spirit, and it is from 
this state of humiliation alone that it is possible for even God 
to exalt man, and if he remains subject to his government, it 
will eventuate in his translation to immortality and eternal life 
—to dwell in indissoluble union with the triune Deity. This 
grand philosophy is summed up in one verse of inspiration : 
First Cor. v, 18— u And all things are of God, who hath recon¬ 
ciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the 
ministry of reconciliation; to it, that God was in Christ, 
reconciling the world unto himself.” Mark, it is not that 
Christ as a second party is reconciling the world to God, 
another party, but it is God in Christ reconciling the world 
unto himself, unto the one and only God of the universe thus 
embodied. 

As the word indicates, this doctrine proposes to bring back 
the world and its subjects to at least as perfect a oneness with 
God and his government, as though sin had never entered into 
it. At-one-ment, comprehending the immortalization and glo¬ 
rification of all the saints of God, and their introduction into 
the everlasting kingdom, which will not take place till Christ 
leaves the mediatorial seat, or priestly office. The word also 
signifies reconciliation, in which restricted sense it is applica¬ 
ble to mankind in the present world. The word atonement 
is only once used in the new testament, and here the Hebrew 
rendering is reconciliation. In the consideration of this doc¬ 
trine we begin with the prediction of Daniel, vii, 24: “ Sev¬ 
enty weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy 
holy cjty, to finish the transgression and to make an end of 
sins (sin offerings), and to make reconciliation for iniquity, to 
bring in everlasting righteousness, and to anoint the Most 
Holy. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one 
week, and in the midst of the week he shall cause the. sacri¬ 
fice and the oblation to cease.” This resulted from the fact 
that the great sacrifice and oblation had now appeared, and 
offered himself “ once for all” as the great antitype, to which 
all the sin offerings of the law pointed. The work here ac- 


God and the World. 


467 

complislied by the sliedding of the blood of atonement was 
the reconciliation for iniquity ; but the atonement itself is not 
to be made until the second mission of Christ to the world. 
Rom. v, 10, 11: “For if, when we were enemies, we were 
reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being 
reconciled we shall be saved by his life ; and not only so, but 
we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom 
we have now received the atonement (reconciliation). We are 
now reconciled to God by the death of his Son, and, being 
reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. When he who is 
our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in 
glory.” This will be the day of atonement. Epli. ii, 16: 
“And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by 
the cross.” Col. ii, 20: “And having made peace through 
the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto 
himself, by him I say, whether they be things in earth or 
things in heaven, and you who were sometimes disobedient 
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he 
reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present 
you holy and unblamable in his sight, if ye continue in the 
faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the 
hope of the gospel which ye have heard, and which was 
preached to every creature under heaven, whereby I, Paul, 
am made a minister. 5 5 

These passages evidently contemplate the great atonement 
of every thing which had become estranged from God by the 
introduction of sin into the world; “of things in heaven and 
earth.” The curse taken away, the saints immortalized, world 
redeemed and re-created as their eternal abode. When, there¬ 
fore, the presentation of the saints made perfect takes place, 
the atonement will be made or the reconciliation completed, 
which term conveys the same idea ; for when God made man 
there was perfect conciliation between the parties. Man’s sin 
and fall, however, produced estrangement and aversion; but 
the atonement or reconciliation proposes to assimilate and 
harmonize the nature of man with, God again. This will 
appear more evident from other passages yet to be introduced. 


468 


The Philosophy of 


2 Cor. v, J8: “And all are of God, who hath reconciled ns to 
himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to ns the ministry of 
reconciliation, to wit: that God was in Christ reconciling the 
world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, 
and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation; now, 
then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did 
beseech you by us ; we pray you in Christ’s stead be ye rec¬ 
onciled to God.” 

Lev. xvi gives us the type of atonement, with which, of 
course, the antitype must correspond. “Then shall he kill 
the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring 
his blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he did 
with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy 
seat; and he shall make an atonement for the holy place, 
because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and 
because of their transgressions, and so shall he do for the tab¬ 
ernacle of the congregation. And there shall be no man in 
the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make 
an atonement in the holy place until he come out , and hath 
made an atonement for himself, his household, and all the 
congregation of Israel. And he shall go out unto the altar 
that is before the Lord and make an ^atonement for it; and 
shall take of the blood of the bullock and of the goat and put 
it on the horns of the altar, and he shall sprinkle the blood 
seven times with his finger and cleanse it. And when he hath 
made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle 
of the congregation and the altar, he shall bring the live goat; 
and Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live 
goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children 
of Israel and their transgressions and sins, and shall send him 
away by the hands of a fit man into the wilderness, and the 
goat shall bear upon him all the iniquities into a land not 
inhabited. 

“And Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of the congrega¬ 
tion, and shall put off the linen garments which he put on 
when he went into the holy place, and wash his flesh with 
water in the holy place, and put on his garments and come 


God and the World. 


469 


forth and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the 
people, and make an atonement for himself and the people. 
And the bullock and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood 
was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall 
one carry forth without the camp ; and this shall be a statute 
forever unto you, that in the seventh month, on the tenth day 
of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at 
all. whether it be one of your own country or a stranger that 
sojournetli among you ; for on that day shall the priest make an 
atonement to cleanse your sins before the Lord. It shall be a 
Sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls by a 
statute forever, and the priest shall make the atonement for 
the sanctuary, for the altar and for the people once a year.” 

It was this law of types of which Jesus said: “Not one jot 
or tittle shall fail till all be fulfilled.” Those types relating 
to the sacrificial offering of Jesus, in his figurative character 
as “Lamb of God,” he exactly fulfilled in his first mission 
to the world. In his second he is to fulfill the type of atone¬ 
ment. According to this type, he has already shed his blood 
preparatory to his making the atonement, and also, on his 
head, as the scapegoat, “ God hath laid the iniquities of us 
all.” “He went forth without the camp bearing our re¬ 
proach.” “'Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the 
sins of the world.” The type also required that no work 
should be done on the day of atonement. The injunction, 
“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” 
will, in the great day of atonement, have ceased its force ; 
then “He that is righteous will be righteous still, he that is 
holy shall be holy still, and he that is filthy let him be filthy 
still.” That this is the correct exposition of the doctrine of 
atonement may be still further shown by the views of Paul 
on the subject. Heb. ii: “Wherefore in all things it be¬ 
hooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might 
be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to 
God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.” 
Now, when these things were thus ordained, the priests went 
always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of 


470 


The Philosophy of 


God, but into the second went the high priest only, once every 
year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and the 
errors of the people. But Christ being come a high priest of 
good things to come, by a greater and more perfect taberna¬ 
cle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building ; 
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood 
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal 
redemption for us, for Christ is not entered into the holy places 
made with hands, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the 
presence of God for us; but now once, in the end of the 
world, hath he appeared to put away sins by the sacrifice of 
himself, for their sins and iniquities will T remember no more. 
Now, where remission of these is, there is no more offering 
for sins; having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into 
the holiest, by the blood of Jesus, a new and living way, 
which he hath consecrated for us through the vail, that is to 
say, his flesh. (That is Christ’s flesh, his resurrection body, 
composed of flesh and bones, when he ascended up, entered 
into that within the vail.) Now, of the things which we have 
spoken, this is the sum : We have such a high priest, who is 
set on the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, whither 
the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made a high priest 
forever, after the order of Melchisedec, which hope w~e have 
as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which 
entereth into that within the vail. So Christ was once offered 
to bear the sins of many ; and to them that look for him shall 
he appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation.” 
Thus we see that it is when Jesus, our great high priest, 
comes out of the holy place that he is to make the atonement. 
An instance of this type is thus recorded. Luke i: “ And it 
came to pass that while Zacflarias executed the priest’s office 
before God, in the order of the course, his lot was to burn 
incense when he went into the temple of the Lord, and the 
whole multitude of the people were praying without , at the 
time of the incense ; and the people waited for Zacharias, and 
marveled that he tarried so long in the temple, and when he 
came out he could not speak unto them ; and they perceived 


God and the World. 


471 

that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned nnto 
them and remained speechless.” Numbers x, 46 , records the 
type thus : ‘ ‘And Moses said nnto Aaron, take a censer and 
put fire therein from off the altar, and go quickly into the 
congregation and make atonement for them, for there is wrath 
gone out from the Lord, the plague is begun. And Aaron 
took, as Moses commanded him, and ran into the midst of the 
congregation; and behold the plague was begun among the 
people ; and he put on incense and made an atonement for 
the people, and he stood between the dead and the living and 
the plague was stayed.” 

The antitype of this, and which is to take place on the 
great day of atonement, when Jesus, the great High Priest, 
leaves the mercy seat and comes out of the holy place to 
bless the people, is thus described by the revelator: “And 
another angel came out and stood at the altar, having a golden 
censer ; and there was given unto him much incense, that he 
should offer it, with the prayers of all saints, upon the 
golden altar which was before the throne; and the smoke of 
the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, 
ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the 
angel took the censer and filled it with fire of the altar, and 
cast it into the earth; and there were voices, and thunder- 
ings, and lightnings and an earthquake.” We may sum up 
this doctrine as follows : Jesus is the sacrificial offering made 
at the commencement of this last dispensation, t for the sins 
of the world. He is our great High Priest, now in the holi¬ 
est of all, and in the presence of God, this is within the vail. 
God is now, in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. 
This ends when he leaves the mercy seat, at the end of the 
world, and comes forth out of the holy place to bless his 
people, which is the great day of atonement. This will 
be the fulfillment of the last prayer of Jesus: “I pray 
for them, that they may be one, as we are one (perfect 
reconciliation), and that they may be with me where I am, 
that they may behold my glory.” 


472 


The Philosophy op 


Answering to the waiting of the congregation of Israel 
without the temple, for the high priest to come out and 
pronounce the reconciliation effected. So, Paul says, Christ 
was once offered to bear the sins of many, and to them that 
look for him shall he appear the [second time, without sin, 
unto salvation. 


Gob and the World. 


473 


CHAPTER LIV. 

CHRIST A PROPHET, PRIEST AND KING. 

In close connection with the subject of atonement, is that 
of Christ’s being a prophet, priest and king. In the consid¬ 
eration of which, we assume the position that these offices are 
held by him successively, and not simultaneous. That he was 
prophet on earth, priest after his ascension, continuing such 
till the day of mercy ends, when he will assume the reins of 
universal empire, and become king in the new heaven and earth 
forever. A prophet is one who teaches or foretells future 
events. This was the work of Jesus, the great teacher, for 
three years and a half, from being anointed at his baptism, 
until the crucifixion. 

That he was designated as the prophet by the prophets, and 
in this period of his history appeared and fulfilled this char¬ 
acter, the following scriptures show: Deut. xviii—“The Lord 
thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of 
thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him shall ye 
hearken, according to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy 
God in Horeb, in the day of the assembly, saying, let me not 
hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see 
this great fire any more, that I die not. And the Lord said 
unto me, they have well spoken that which they have spoken. 
I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren like 
unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth ; and he shall 
speak unto them all that I shall command him, and it shall 
come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words, 
which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.” 

The idea here is, that God will modify his awful glory by 
the assumption of a nature like that of Moses, so that the 
60 


474 


The Philosophy of 


people may be able to endure tlie sight and hear the words of 
God, which he shall speak without being shocked or die 
by his hitherto unvailed glory. Therefore Jesus said: “They 
are not my words, but the words of him that sent me.” The 
application of this prediction to Jesus is recorded, Acts iii, 20: 
“For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the 
Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto 
me ; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say 
unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which 
will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the 
people, yea and all the prophets from Samuel, as many as 
have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. Ye are 
the children of the prophets, and the covenant which God 
made with our fathers, saying, unto Abraham, And in thy 
seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you 
first, God having raised up his son Jesus, sent him to bless 
you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” 

That Jesus was not a priest, while he was thus a prophet, is 
evident from the fact that the office of a priest is to offer 
sacrifices, and the only sacrifice he had to offer was that of 
himself, but which he did not do until the close of his office 
as prophet. This great offering, therefore, of himself was pre¬ 
paratory to his entrance into the priestly office. We remark 
in regard to an important feature relating to the order of that 
priesthood and necessary to be understood, if we would have 
correct views of its character, that it was not the Aaronic, or 
Levitical; had it been, it would have been necessary that he 
should have sprung from the tribe of Levi. But Jesus did 
not come either as priest or king through any ancestral line 
of descent or genealogy. We are aware that this may seem 
like the assumption of high if not erroneous grounds, 
inasmuch as both Matthew and Luke give what purports to 
be “the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son 
of Abraham.” In reference to those genealogies, we think 
they originated with these evangelists themselves, and not by 
inspiration of God. What gave rise to them was the error 
entertained not only by the Jews generally, but by the dis- 


God and the World . 


475 

ciples also, that when the Messiah came, he was to be the 
exclusive king of the Jews, just as David was, only perhaps 
greater ; that under his reign the Hebrew nation was not only 
to be free from any foreign yoke or subjection, but that all 
nations of the earth were to be humiliated and made tributary 
to it; that all the glowing prophetic descriptions of the 
universal reign of this great king were to have their fulfillment 
under the dominion of the Messiah as “King of the Jews ;” 
hence, Pilate, believing Jesus to be this Messiah, had the 
inscription wrote over his cross, “ Jesus of Nazareth, king of 
the Jews.” 

On one occasion those who followed him, acknowledging 
that he spake as never man spake, also witnessing his mighty 
works, attempted to take him by force to make him this 
king, but he escaped out of their hands; and, although, in 
response to Pilate’s question “Art thou then a king?” “to 
this end was I born; yet now is my Icingdom not from hence.” 
It does not now commence. “My kingdom is not of this 
world” It is of the world to come which is to be created 
from the ashes of this. “ I am as a man traveling into a far 
country, to receive for myself a kingdom, and to return.” 
No ! Jesus was not born to be king of the little Jewish nation, 
but to sway the scepter of universal empire. “From sea to 
sea, and from the rivers unto the ends of the (new) earth.” 
Not to be king in common with others of earthly origin, but 
in a heavenly country, with his throne in the city that hath 
foundations, to be King of kings and Lord of lords. Not to 
come to his throne by the voice of a few Jews, but in the 
clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and by the 
proclamation of ten thousand times ten thousand of his glori¬ 
fied saints and the glad acclaim of all the angels of God. 
Whose seat of empire is not to be the Jerusalem “which is 
now” as Paul expresses it, which is only the type, but in the 
New Jerusalem, which cometh down from God out of heaven, 
the golden city and capital of the new earth. 

Indeed, so deep was this idea fixed in the minds of the dis¬ 
ciples that even the crucifixion of Jesus failed to correct it; 


476 


The Philosophy of 


hence after his resurrection they inquired “ Wilt thou at this 
time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” Though Jesus 
had effectually, and forever, broken down the middle wall of 
partition between Jews and Gentiles, yet those deep-seated 
Jewish proclivities, of their being the peculiar and exclusive 
people of God, still remained. Peter would still preach cir¬ 
cumcision, although it made divisions in the Christian church, 
and because the father of Timothy was a Greek, compelled 
him also to be circumcised. In consequence of this dissimu¬ 
lation on the part of Peter “many were carried away,” 
concerning which Paul “withstood him to the face, for he was 
to be blamed.” While the conversion of Paul completely 
destroyed his Jewish prepossessions, so that, like his Master, 
his gospel embraced the race, Peter’s never rose above the 
entanglements of the yoke of bondage; he would still go to 
the circumcision, while Paul went principally to the Gentiles, 
and as the apostle of the Gentiles he magnified his office. 
It should also be remembered that this was after God had 
given Peter the vision of the sheet let down from heaven, con¬ 
taining all kinds of beasts, clean and unclean, and in accord¬ 
ance with which instruction thus signified, he had gone to 
Cornelius and preached the gospel, and upon whom he had 
seen the Holy Ghost fall, as upon the disciples at the first. 

Jesus had provided that when he sent the Holy Ghost, the 
Comforter, he would bring all things to the remembrance of 
the disciples whatsoever he had said unto them, during the 
three years and a half of liis ministry, and therefore the 
records according to the evangelists contain all the things 
which they had seen Jesus do, and all the words they had 
heard him speak, together with the history of the events 
through which they had passed, at least all that he considered 
necessary for the instruction of the church, in all ages, and 
which they were thus qualified to write. 

In accordance with this idea, Luke thus commences his 
gospel. “Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set 
forth in order a declaration of the things which are most 
surely believed among us, even as they delivered them unto 


God and the World. 


477 


us, which, from the beginning were eye witnesses and ministers 
of the word: it seemed good to mo also, haying had per¬ 
fect understanding of all things, from the very first, to write 
unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, of those things 
wherein thou hast been instructed.” Luke is here to set 
forth the facts of the ministry and acts of Jesus which he had 
witnessed and heard. The first three chapters, however, before 
he comes to this subject, with the exception of the short 
account of his baptism, are occupied with things relating to 
John’s ministry, including the genealogy under considera¬ 
tion, and are simply introductory to his subject, having no 
legitimate connection with the ministry of Jesus, which the 
Spirit of truth was to bring to his remembrance, but was an 
effort of his own to make it appear that Jesus was a lineal 
descendant of David and Abraham, in accordance with which 
he was to be a Jewish king, under whose reign and conquests 
that nation was again to be put in possession, and in a more 
exalted sense, all the land promised to Abraham, and that 
then this same king was to be their perpetual high priest. 

The fact that probably suggested this task to Luke, of trac¬ 
ing natural lineage to Jesus, was that Matthew had done the 
same thing before ; indeed, as he says, “ many had,” and not 
being satisfied with the generations or progenitors of Jesus, 
as they had given them, gives us another genealogy, and, as 
we shall see by comparison, quite a different one, which fact 
alone vindicates our position in questioning the divine authen¬ 
ticity of either. If wrote under the dictation of the Holy 
Ghost, any discrepancy would have been impossible, which 
would also be true if they were not found to harmonize with 
other scriptures upon the same subject. Let us look at these 
discrepancies and we shall see that they are palpable and con¬ 
tradictory. Luke gives twenty generations in his line between 
David and Salathiel, while Matthew gives in his only fif¬ 
teen. Luke gives eighteen generations between Salathiel and 
Joseph, Mary’s husband; Matthew only ten, and many of 
them are quite different individuals. Luke runs his gene¬ 
alogy through Nathan, the ninth son of David, while Matthew 


478 


The Philosophy of 


runs Iris through Solomon, the tenth son of David. Now, it 
is simply absurd to suppose that Joseph could have de¬ 
scended from both of these ancestral fathers, the two sons of 
David. But another fact fatal to its being the genealogy 
of Jesus Christ is, that it does not run to him at all, but ends 
with Joseph, the husband of Mary, who were not blood rela¬ 
tions. As well contend that the husband of a queen, simply 
as such, is king. Besides this, there is the fact that Joseph 
was in no sense the father of Jesus Christ; he had no father 
but God, and it is remarkable that Luke should have made 
such a superficial attempt to connect Jesus with a generation 
of human ancestors, obliging him, when he came to the 
very link in the chain where the relationship must be sus¬ 
tained, if at all, to use the sentence, and that, too, in a paren¬ 
thesis, showing it was his own, “ (As was supposed) to be the 
son of Joseph.” Indeed, it was a supposition which Luke 
himself did not entertain, for he tells us that “Jesus Christ 
was begotten of the Holy Ghost, and born of the virgin 
Mary.” 

Thus, we have a very superficial and far-fetched attempt to 
give Jesus Christ what he never had, or claimed to have had, 
a natural genealogy, and, as might have been expected, 
abruptly breaks down before reaching him. No! Christ 
“ was born not of the will of man, but of God.” 


God and the World . 


479 


CHAPTER LY. 

THE RELATION BETWEEN JESUS AND DAVID. 

In order to bring out the relation subsisting between Christ 
and David, we introduce the following: Mat. xxii, 41 — 
“ While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked 
them, what think ye of Christ, whose son is he ? They said 
the son of David. He saith unto them, how then doth David 
in spirit call him Lord, saying, the Lord said unto my Lord 
sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy foot¬ 
stool ; if David called him Lord, how then is he his son ? 
They did not answer the question, which, however, we con¬ 
ceive to be this: David being a prophet, and seeing that God 
the Father would raise up Christ from the dead to sit upon 
his own throne, of which David’s was the type, therefore, 
David in spirit , personating Christ, acknowledged him to be 
the king, who was thus to sit on David’s throne, who, of 
course, was also David’s Lord.” David said, u The Lord, the 
Father, said unto my Lord, the Son, in whom he dwelt, sit 
thou on my right hand,” etc. This was spoken in anticipa¬ 
tion of the ascension of Christ; of his putting all his enemies 
under his feet, including death; him that had the power of 
death, the devil, and all the wicked, consigning them to their 
own place, and establishing his eternal kingdom under the 
whole heavens. 

To show that it was not designed Jesus should come 
through any natural genealogy to his throne, God took 
David, a shepherd, as the type of Christ, the king, wresting 
the kingdom from the house of Saul. “And the people 
of Hebron took David, and made him king by acclamation.” 
This was the symbol of the manner in which Christ comes 
into his kingdom, who had no more lineal connection to it 


480 


The Philosophy of 


than David had to the throne of Saul. The antitype of 
David’s coronation is thus recorded: “And I heard a great 
voice from heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world have 
become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he 
shall reign forever and ever.” He is thus the root and offspring 
of David. As “the everlasting Father,” Christ, was David’s 
creator and Lord. As Jesus, who was born in the “city of 
David,” he was his son, as successor to his throne; the type 
in old Jerusalem to fulfill which, Jesus is to be the king in 
the new Jerusalem, the antitype, the capital city of the new 
earth. 

“David was a man after God’s own heart,” in which re¬ 
spect, also, he was a fit type of Christ, “ who always did the 
will of his Father which sent him.” But as to Christ’s rela¬ 
tion with Abraham in this genealogy, it is also said : “This 
is the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of Abraham.” And 
the same effort is made to trace his generation through nat¬ 
ural ancestors to this Patriarch, but exhibiting, as we shall 
see, the same contradictions and absurdities as in the case of 
David. The question is, What are we to understand by Jesus 
Christ being the son of Abraham ? 

That he was not his son in any genealogical sense, connect¬ 
ing him with the Jewish nation, is certain ; just as the Jews 
confounded the prophetic descriptions of the eternal kingdom 
of God with their little kingdom of which David was once 
king. So also did they confound the promises God made to 
Abraham, as all belonging to them, as a nation, including 
those which relate to Christ and all the nations of the earth, 
who were to be blessed in him. We have already examined 
these two covenants at length, and therefore it will only be 
necessary here to touch upon a few points connecting their 
history with Jesus Christ, as the son of Abraham. One of 
the two covenants God made with Abraham, as Paul describes, 
was according to the flesh, running through Ishmael, the 
son of Abraham by Hagar, the bondwoman, and answereth to 
Jerusalem that now is, and is in bondage with her children. 
The other ran through Isaac and his seed, “For in Isaac shall 


God and the World. 


481 


thy seed be called, and in Isaac shall all nations be blessed, ” 
which, also, according to Paul’s exposition, meant Christ, 
thus : “For when God made promise to Abraham and to his 
seed, he saith not unto seeds , as of many, but to thy seed, which 
is Christ,” and this promise looks into the New Jerusalem 
of the new earth for its realization. “But Jerusalem which 
is above is free, and is the mother of us all. Now we brethren, 
as Isaac was, are the children of promise. For it is written, 
rejoice thou barren that bearest not, break forth and cry, for 
the desolate hath many more children than she which hath 
an husband.” 

The feature to which we wish to direct especial attention 
in relation to this prediction and its historic connections is 
indicated in the last verse, and relates to the wife of Abraham, 
and which shows how careful the inspirer of the prophets was 
to guard against the Jewish assumption of any natural gene¬ 
ration, through which Christ was to descend, so that it would 
be impossible, truthfully, to confound him with that nation, 
differing only in degree from others, so that they might not 
reason thus: David was a great king, but Messiah will be 
greater. Great were the high priests of the sons of Levi, but 
Christ will be greater, but still an officiate at Jewish altars. 
Abraham was great, indeed, but Messiah is to be greater, but 
as absolutely and exclusively belonging to the Jewish nation 
as any of her patriarchs, prophets, priests or kings. 

We remark, then, that God providentially selected wives 
for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, father, son and grandson, 
whose names were Sarah, Rebeckah and Rachel, through 
whom the promised seed was to come, and yet all these 
women were barren, but, in accordance with an especial 
promise, God so miraculously interfered that they all bore 
children. Sarah’s son was Isaac, Rebeckah’s was Jacob, and 
Rachel’s was Joseph. These miraculous conceptions were, 
therefore, strikingly typical of that of Jesus, and by infinite 
wisdom arranged for the purpose of refuting the notion, as 
God saw it would be put forth, that Jesus was born into the 
world through an ancestral line of human generations. The 
61 


482 


The Philosophy of 


conclusion, of this teaching is, that without miraculous inter¬ 
ference, Isaac, as the heir of promise, would never have been 
born; neither would Jesus, the great antitype of Isaac, and 
if Joseph had been the father of Jesus, as Mary was his 
mother, he would have been simply man, and nothing more, 
great or little, according to circumstances. 

We see, however, by the record of his birth, that he was 
begotten by the Holy Ghost, made (created) of a woman — 
the virgin Mary — as literally and truly as was Eve of Adam, 
and thereby sufficiently connecting him with our race, so that 
he could feel our weaknesses and sympathize with our sor¬ 
rows, susceptible of being in all points tempted as we, and 
yet as far above us as a nature would necessarily be which 
was begotten directly by God of a virgin, and thenceforth pos¬ 
sessing that body as his own. 

This truth also furnishes an unanswerable argument against 
the fearfully erroneous system of Unitarianism, showing that 
Jesus was not perfect man, which requires perfect human 
parentage, father and mother both, his father being God, 
thus clothing himself with a human body, as far as that 
could come through the woman, and that which was thus born 
being Immanuel, “God with us,” and, therefore, infinitely 
higher than man, and that, too, even in this lowest phase of 
his being. 

If the genealogies of Jesus, as given by Matthew and Luke, 
ran to Mary instead of Joseph, there might have been some 
plausibility in the attempt to give him a natural lineage, but 
this is all. It could never have been harmonized with the 
teachings of scripture which exalts his name, indicative of 
his being, above every name in earth or heaven; while the 
human view of his nature degrades him vastly below the 
inspired descriptions of that nature. The Jewish effort, also, 
to give Christ lineal descent to the priesthood, has no better 
claim to truth than those we have considered. The claim that 
Christ, the Messiah, was to descend through the Levitical line, 
giving the Jews a superior right to his priestly office, was long 
since exposed as error, by the masterly argument of the great 


God and the World . 


483 


apostle of tlie Gentiles, addressed to the Hebrews ; and it is 
wonderful that both the learned and unlearned among that 
people have failed to perceive from the “lively oracles” the 
divine transcript of this great personage, that, as prophet, 
priest and king, he belonged to no particular nation, but to 
the whole race; and that in no one of these grand characters 
or offices was he to come, or did come, through any ancestral 
blood, royal, patriarchal, genealogy or priestly succession. 

We remark here, that our instructions in regard not only to 
this question, but to all others, are those as expounded by 
Paul, our apostle, “ the apostle of the Gentiles;” and when¬ 
ever there are differences of opinion between him and the 
other apostles, we take him as our standard. As we have 
already remarked, his conversion cured him of all Jewish 
proclivities, and besides this, his gospel was revealed unto 
him by Jesus Christ, and who was, therefore, elevated above 
all previous errors and partial exclusiveness. Indeed, this is 
what we might expect to find in a man whose conversion, 
apostleship and ministry were especially adapted to meet the 
wants of the Gentile world ; his qualification, of course, would 
be equal to his calling. 

In the presentation of Paul’s argument we need do little 
else than quote his words, in order to show that Jesus Christ 
did not come to his priestly office through the line of Levi, 
as all Jewish priests did: “For it is evident that our Lord 
sprung out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spake nothing 
concerning priesthood, and it is far more evident that after 
the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest, 
who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but 
after the power of an endless life, for he testifieth thou art a 
priest forever, after the order of Melchisedec.” After Christ 
had made the sacrifice of himself, according to this, he was 
to enter into his priestly office, which, of course, was at his 
ascension, hence the apostle goes on to say : “ Which hope we 
have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which 
entereth into that within the vail; whether the forerunner is 
for us entered, even Jesus, made a high priest forever, after 


484 


The Philosophy of 


the order of Melchisedec. For this Melchisedec, king of 
Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham return¬ 
ing from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom, 
also, Abraham gave a tenth of all, first being, by interpreta¬ 
tion, king of righteousness, and after that, king of Salem, 
which is king of peace ; without father, without mother, with¬ 
out descent , having neither beginning of days nor end of life, 
but made like unto the Son of Man, abideth a priest contin¬ 
ually.” 

The idea is simply that Melchisedec had no priestly or 
kingly line of ancestors — of fathers, mothers, etc. —through 
which he descended, and, therefore, no chronological data, 
marking the beginning and ending of such progenitors, and 
the expression, “He was without descent” explains the whole 
of the passage. 

“Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even 
the Patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. And 
verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office 
of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the 
people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though 
they come out of the loins of Abraham ; but he whose descent 
is not counted (Melchisedec) received tithes of Abraham, and 
blessed him that had the promises, and, without contradic¬ 
tion, the less is blessed of the better. And here men that die 
receive tithes of whom it is witnessed that he liveth, and, as 
I may so say, Levi, also, which receiveth the tithes, paid 
tithes in Abraham, for he was yet in the loins of his father 
when Melchisedec met him. If, therefore, perfection were of 
the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the 
law), what further need was there of another priest to rise, 
after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the 
order of Aaron, for the priesthood being changed, there is 
need, also, of a change of the law, for he (Christ) of whom 
these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of whom 
no man gave attendance at the altar?” This was the tribe of 
Judah. 

Here, then, we have the presentation of a high priest of 


God and the World . 


485 


God, the type of Christ, who has an unchangeable priesthood. 
He was greater than Abraham or his grandson Levi, the father 
of the tribe, from whom the Jewish priests, according to the 
law, were selected, and unto whom the whole Jewish nation 
paid tithes. But to show the subordination of the Jewish 
priesthood to this great high priest of God, Levi and Abra¬ 
ham paid tithes to him; and, notwithstanding Melchisedec 
was priest of the Most High God, and so much better and 
greater than Abraham and Levi, yet he was only the type, the 
mere shadow of the “ Christ of God,” our great high priest, 
who ever liveth to make intercession for the saints. 

The generations of Melchisedec was not counted, and it was 
especially in this respect that “he was made like the son of 
God,” who had no generations connecting him with any par¬ 
ticular family or nation of men, which, if he had, would have 
circumscribed his priesthood, but in the absence of which it 
would be equal to the demand, and as comprehensive as the 
race. 4 ‘ He was cut off from the land of the living, and who 
shall declare his generation?” is a question implying the 
impossibility to trace the great Messiah of the world through 
any generation of men, and simply because he had none; 
and had Matthew and Luke been as free as Paul from Jewish 
proclivities and error, no such attempts would ever have been 
made as those which they record. 

But this is not all the significance there is in the selection of 
Melchisedec as the type of Christ, for, though he was “priest 
of the Most High God,” he was not in the Abrahamic line, 
and, therefore, not a Jew but a Gentile; and thus again most 
beautifully prefiguring Christ as the universal sacrifice and 
priest of all nations and ages. He was also a king, and a 
“king of righteousness.” Peter gives the location of this 
reign thus: “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, 
look for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth 
righteousness .” He was also “king of Salem,” which means 
“ king of peace.” 

In the Mosaic economy, the prophets, priests and kings 
were separate officers, and there was no national type suffi- 


486 


The Philosophy of 


ciently comprehensive to point out the Son of God in all these 
characters, hence Melchisedec, who, we cannot but believe, 
was raised up by the especial providence of God, as this won¬ 
derfully distinguished personage, to be this most adequate type 
of the great “ Christ of God,” under whose righteous reign, 
as King of Peace, shall be fulfilled and established the pro¬ 
phetic song of the advent angels : “ Peace on earth and good 
will to men.” “ Peace shall flow as a river, and righteousness 
as the waves of the sea.” This, however, is not to be realized 
in the present world. In reference to it Jesus said: “lam 
not come to send peace on the earth, but a sword,” which has 
been and still is fearfully exemplified in the divisions, conten¬ 
tions and persecutions, resulting from the aggressive attacks 
of the gospel message upon a sinful world. But, neverthe¬ 
less, Jesus, the “Prince of Peace,” shall yet reign, when 
every discordant element and war passion shall have come to 
a perpetual end, when “He whose right it is shall come and 
take the kingdom, and sway his peaceful and righteous 
scepter from sea to sea, and from the rivers unto the ends of 
the earth.’ ’ When the long and fierce controversy of Zion shall 
have forever ended, and the grand, universal and eternal reign 
of him, of whom the king of Salem was the typical emblem, as 
both the Prince and King of Peace shall come. The priestly 
office of Christ being now superseded by his assumption of 
the kingly, when the dedication song of the new world will 
be sung by all the immortal saints and angels: “The king¬ 
doms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and 
of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” In antici¬ 
pation of the inheritance of such a world, “ready to be 
revealed in the last time,” who would not respond amen to 
the exclamation of the revelator, who beheld it in glowing 
vision, to be brought by the Son of Man: “Come, Lord 
Jesus, come quickly \ ” 

Anticipating an objection in thus setting aside these genealo¬ 
gies, on the ground that they are found written in the Bible, 
we remark that there are a great many things the Bible con¬ 
tains which are not inspired scripture. For instance, the devil 


God and the World. 


487 


said, after showing Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and 
the glory of them : ‘ ‘All these things will I give unto thee if 
thou wilt fall down and worship me.” Surely God did not 
inspire the devil to use these words to tempt Christ, and which 
his answer conclusively proves : “ It is written thou shalt not 
tempt the Lord thy God,” and yet this is revealed in the 
scriptures. 

The friends of Job, also, said a great many skeptical things, 
in fact presented a very high order of transcendental phi¬ 
losophy, in order to induce the good man to give up his 
faith and integrity in God, and still, amid all this, he believed 
his sufferings were the result of divine interference, and when 
Job came out of the conflict triumphant, God required these 
men to go and make humble confession, and to implore Job 
to pray for them that they might be forgiven. Now, all this 
skeptical philosophy, with the hard saying of Job’s wife, 
“Curse God and die,” are recorded in the.Bible, but, of 
course, have no claim to be inspired scripture, but are simply 
a true history of this strange occurrence. The inspired say¬ 
ings and visions of Job constitute the scripture of the book. 
We are aware that it is simply impossible for any man to 
decide just what is inspiration, and what is merely history, 
of the things which are recorded in the Bible. We may, 
however, remark that so far as the books of the Old Testa¬ 
ment are concerned, they certainly contain divine revelation. 
If there were no other arguments to substantiate this position, 
the fact that Jesus and the apostles quote from them all is 
sufficient. After his resurrection Jesus gives us a very com¬ 
prehensive confirmation of these being the great source of the 
inspired scriptures. Luke xxiv, 44, 45 : “And he said unto 
them, these are the words which I spake unto you while I 
was yet with you, that all things might be fulfilled which 
were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in 
the Psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their under¬ 
standing that they might understand the scriptures. And he 
said unto them, thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ 


488 


The Philosophy of 


to suffer and to rise again from the dead the third day, accord¬ 
ing to the scriptures.” 

Here we have Christ’s own declaration that all things which 
are written in the law of Moses, in the prophets and in the 
Psalms, concerning him , are scripture. And Paul, writing to 
Timothy, says: “All scripture is given by inspiration of 
God.” But this by no means includes all the things written 
in what are called the first five books of Moses, because it is 
a fact that a great proportion of them are occupied with the 
history of the exodus, that of the judges and of the kings of 
Judah, etc., all of which are intermingled with angel mes¬ 
sages and visions given by God to the prophets, who lived at 
the time the events were passing. These are scripture. 

The Mosaic account of creation must also of necessity have 
been given by Divine inspiration, because it was written by 
Moses more than twenty-five hundred years after the creation 
took place; he was inspired to look back, as the prophets 
were to look forward, in portraying events. All the types of 
the law, pointing to events connected with the first and second 
advents of Christ, and therefore “concerning” him, are the 
direct teachings of God, and constitute the scriptures of 
Moses, of which Jesus said “Not one jot or tittle shall in any¬ 
wise pass from the law, till all shall be fulfilled ; heaven and 
earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.” 

All the writings of the prophets, who wrote as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost, are pure inspiration ; “ For the 
Scriptures came not in old time by the will of men, but holy 
men of God wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 
This, however, does not include all the things written in the 
books called by the names of the prophets. In Daniel, for 
instance, we have the record of Nebuchadnezzar’s being driven 
from his throne, and dwelling among the beasts of the field for 
seven years. The account given of the three Hebrew children 
being cast into the burning fiery furnace, and of Belshazzar 
being slain, and of Cyrus taking the kingdom, all of which, 
of course, are only history. The scripture the book contains 
is the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, shown by 


Gob and the World . 


489 


God, to the prophet Daniel, and his visions with their angelic 
interpretations, filling np the rest of the book. And so we 
might continue to discriminate with tolerable clearness through 
all the books of the Bible, assuming no position but which it 
thus clearly justifies, but these are sufficient to present a clue, 
as to what constitute the inspired Scriptures of the Old Testa¬ 
ment. 

In regard to the New Testament, we may remark that those 
things recorded by the four evangelists are what they saw 
Jesus do, and heard him speak, during the three years and a 
half of his ministry, all of which, according to promise, were 
brought to their memory by the Holy Ghost. “ When the 
Comforter, the Spirit of truth, is come, whom the Father will 
send in my name, he shall bring all things to your remem¬ 
brance whatsoever I have said unto you,’’ they thus were 
qualified to write the gospels. It does not, however, follow, 
that because Matthew and Luke record what purports to be 
Christ’s genealogy, that it was one of the things about which 
he had discoursed while with them ; this is more than implied 
in the introduction Luke gives of his gospel: “ Forasmuch as 
many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration 
of those things which are most surely believed among us, it 
seemed good to me, also, having had perfect understanding of 
all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most 
excellent Theophilus.” We observe here that neither of 
these evangelists claim that the genealogies they record were 
among the things taught them by Jesus. Matthew, as many 
others had done, as Luke says, had taken it upon himself, to 
set forth Christ’s genealogy. This did not please Luke, 
because he believed it to be incorrect, hence he says: “It 
therefore seemed good to me also tq do the same, and to give 
a better one ; hence the discrepancies between them. 

Paul’s gospel, except what he says, “I speak as a man,” 
was pure revelation, and elevated him above Jewish preju¬ 
dices, while the evangelists were not. Paul says, “But I cer¬ 
tify you brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me 
is not of man; for I neither received it of man, neither was 
62 


490 


The Philosophy op 


I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Gal. i, 
11, 12. The epistles of the other apostles were written in har¬ 
mony with the teachings of Jesus generally, but not always. 

The effort of Peter to build again the wall of partition 
between Jews and Gentiles, which Christ had broken down, 
by teaching the necessity of circumcision, and thus lowering 
the gospel standard to accommodate Jewish prepossessions, 
going so far as to dissemble, for which Paul said, “ I with¬ 
stood him to the face, for he was to be blamed.” Surely God 
did not inspire Peter to thus teach, and Paul to denounce the 
teaching, and yet this is recorded in the Bible ; but it is not 
scripture, because not given by inspiration of God. In regard 
to the book of Revelation, it can be considered in no other 
light than that of pure inspired scripture; if nothing else 
proves this, its style is too high to be the production of man. 
But it is, as we have seen, a key to the prophecies. 


God and the World . 


491 


CHAPTER LVI. 

THE UNITY OF GOD. 

So much importance and absorbing interest has the great 
doctrine of the trinity, in the controversy respecting God, at 
the present day assumed, that the impression has become 
firmly fixed, though theoretically discarded, that the persons 
in the trinity have not only a numerical but also a local iden¬ 
tity, peculiar to each. The conception is so definite that the 
Father and Son are independent, occupying different places 
at the same time; that to all intents and purposes they are 
two, and not one, each in every respect as distinctly separate 
as any two beings can be; indeed, this disintegration is so per¬ 
fect, that it becomes simply absurd to say all the persons in 
the.trinity are but one being. 

Now, aside from the important and vital idea involved in 
this controversy, which assumes to undervalue and degrade 
one of the persons in the trinity, at the expense of another, 
this phase of it becomes simply a mathematical proposition, 
in which respect, being absurd, it cannot be true. According 
to this science two things are essential to separate numbers, 
either as beings or things, namely, individuality and locality. 
A locomotive is a locomotive only, though composed of 
essentially different parts and mechanical principles. A man 
is only a man, though possessed of mind, soul, spirit and 
body; separate either from him, so that it would have another 
locality, and he would cease to be man. 

We are aware that man, thus compounded, is often used to 
illustrate the three persons in the trinity, and if these constit¬ 
uent parts were really believed to represent similar or other 
parts in the Godhead, we would have no objection to its use, 
but perhaps in the next sentence it would be positively de- 


492 


The Philosophy of 


dared that God has not only no such parts, but no parts at 
all. How common is it to hear or read theological expositions 
respecting God and the trinity, perfectly repugnant to the idea 
that he is one. We are also referred to natural phenomena 
as its illustration. Water, for instance, congealed in the forms 
of ice and snow, but being water still. But in these forms 
each is as distinct as can be, and conveys no other idea than 
that three separate persons locally and numerically exist in 
the Godhead. It should also be remembered that in this illus¬ 
tration there is the existence of an elementary congeniality 
in each of the forms for each other water thus assumes, and 
of such affinity that, under different atmospheric tempera¬ 
tures, they are convertible into each other ; but these exposi¬ 
tions of the persons in the trinity make them so unlike that 
no such union is possible. For instance, it is said that God, 
the Father, is a pure spirit, and a pure spirit is defined to be 
dispossessed of matter. Electricity, although so sublimated or 
etherealized that it pervades all other substances, none being so 
solid or impervious as to resist its penetration. Its flight, too, 
is as quick as thought, and yet this is real matter, and you 
may conceive, if possible, of the infinite divisibility of its 
particles beyond their natural condition ; and yet God is of 
such a substance that you thus make not the least approxi¬ 
mation toward the nature of his being. Of such an idea we 
can say nothing less than that it is a mere atheistic illusion, 
because it does their work by absolutely annihilating the 
great God of the universe ; but this is the illustration defining 
the first person in the trinity. 

Then we come to the Holy Ghost, and precisely the same 
delineation is given of its nature, making the two of such per¬ 
fect similitude that it is marvelous how those holding such 
views can maintain the position that God, the Father, and the 
Holy Ghost are two persons of any distinction, both being 
pure spirits, explained to be without body or parts ; and yet 
the same philosophy, thus making them one, also parts them 
into two, each independent and of equal power. How, if such 
ideas were taught in the bible, and it was demonstrated to be 


God and the World. 


493 


a revelation from God, we would be obliged to give them our 
assent, but for a reasoning mind to have any degree of convic¬ 
tion of their truth is utterly impossible. 

But God is the author of no such confusion. We charac¬ 
terize it as such, not because it is above human reason, or 
comprehension, but absolutely repugnant to it; besides, do we 
not perceive that the conclusion from such a hypothesis is 
that there are two Holy Spirits in the trinity, and, therefore, 
no trinity at all of different persons. It weighs nothing to say 
we are carrying the argument too far, going beyond safety and 
propriety ; our answer is, it is those who make such assump¬ 
tions who go too far, not however by correct reasoning, or 
Scripture authority, but by instituting unnecessary and fic¬ 
titious theories as unphilosophic as they are untenable, and 
equally unsupported by the revelation God has given us of 
himself. 

We ask these theorists whence they derive the right, for 
such knowledge they cannot have, to define a spirit or 
spiritual nature to be absolutely dispossessed of solid sub¬ 
stance, a mere abstract conception of immateriality, which of 
itself must be as impersonal as ideality, and had its origin in 
the visionary philosophy of Plato, who taught that the malig¬ 
nant principle of evil was resident in matter, simply because 
it was matter, and, therefore, degraded and rendered des¬ 
picable whatever being possessed it, or wherever it existed. 

In order to refute such a supposition we here offer two 
revealed truths. First, The resurrected and immortal saints 
whose bodies are to be spiritual are nevertheless real, material 
organizations, possessed of flesh and bones. And secondly, 
The body of Christ which died and rose again, was also a real 
material body. He told his disciples to handle him and see 
that he was not a spirit; to behold the prints of the nails, that 
it was himself, for said he, “a spirit hath not flesh and bones 
as ye see me have.” And the promise is that the saints are 
to be fashioned like unto his glorious body, which is in his 
resurrection likeness. 

Here, then, from the highest authority, written before die- 


494 


The Philosophy of 


tionaries or lexicons existed, we have a spiritual body defined, 
and, negatively or incidentally, some light thrown upon a 
spirit itself, which, although not composed of flesh and bones, 
it does not follow that it is an inorganic fabric of immaterial¬ 
ity, that is, when used to designate a person. 

But here is Christ’s body which was sown a natural body, 
or was buried such, but raised a spiritual body, and which 
was the same material organic being that died, composed of 
flesh and bones, and, of course, of all other functions and 
parts essential to the Redeemer of men. The great God takes 
upon himself this material body, which in the resurrection 
becomes incorruptible, immortal, spiritual and glorious, and 
therefore deathless, and thus becoming “a quickening spirit.” 
In this great transaction, in contrast to the Platonic philos¬ 
ophy of the principle of evil resident in matter, and its 
consequent degradation, we have an illustration of the high 
and eternal honor in which material bodies in the estimation 
of God are held, and which we here offset to this senseless 
philosophy of Plato entertained by whomsoever it may be. 

But to pursue these notions respecting the nature of the 
persons in the trinity and definitions of spirit nature, we are 
also driven to the conclusion that Jesus Christ must be 
reduced to an immaterial being. In order to do this it is only 
necessary to adopt the latitudinarian principle of interpreta¬ 
tion, claimed by those who contend that God is a pure spirit, 
having no body ; and it should be remembered that this is 
the dogma of the Romish church which the fathers, Origen 
and his followers, adopted from Plato, and at once, as by the 
wand of a magician, Jesus disappears, losing all tangibility 
and capacity to occupy space, whose location the eternal 
flight of an angel could never find, simply because he had 
none. 

The scripture which is supposed to admit of such a con¬ 
struction is in 1 Cor. xv: “And as it is written the first 
man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam (Jesus) 
was made a quickening spirit. The first man is of the earth 
earthy, the second man is the Lord from heaven, and as we 


God and the World. 


495 

have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the 
image of the heavenly.” Now, as Jesns is a quickening 
spirit, and the resurrected and immortal saints are to be like 
him, and if a spirit is merely an immaterial intangibility — a 
Shakespearian ghost, like— 

“ A false creation, rising from 
The heat-oppressed brain,” 

but yet a spirit, then we have all the persons in the trinity 
reduced to precisely the same nature, which gives us a trinity 
of three spirits or Holy Ghosts, which is the same thing. 
Denominate them Father, Son and Holy Ghost, if you please, 
but with such exposition the words signify no peculiarity and 
convey no distinct idea that the persons in the trinity in any 
wise differ from each other, having only peculiar offices. 

Another absurdity in this theory is, that it makes four per¬ 
sons in the Godhead. Christ is made to preexist, or to exist 
before he was born, separate and distinct from the Father and 
the Holy Ghost. We have, then, the Holy Ghost, a pure 
spirit, having no body; God the Son, preexisting, a pure 
spirit, having no body; God the Father, a pure spirit, hav¬ 
ing no body; and the Son, which was born in the city of 
David, also a quickening spirit; and if a spirit has no body 
then he has none, and if he is not rejected from the other per¬ 
sons in the trinity, on the account of the Platonic antipath}^ 
against his material body, we have the singular trinity of 
four, the little mathematical discrepancy being of too small 
account to be noticed in such great matters. Only apply the 
mystical rule of interpretation and three becomes four or four 
three, just as you would like to have it; indeed, all contradic¬ 
tions disappear, simply by reducing things and beings to a 
nature or condition utterly beyond the power of mind to con¬ 
ceive, and, therefore, to discriminate between truth and error, 
ordo detect either. 

But we cannot afford to have Jesus of Nazareth excluded 
from the Godhead, for, to our poor fallen humanity, it is the 
greatest truth of all, and if we would give either the preemi¬ 
nence, it would be him. It is but little consequence to man to 


496 


The Philosophy of 


know what is the nature of God or the Holy Ghost, or 
whether there were any God, had not our great Immanuel 
lived. This disintegration of the Godhead belongs no more 
to the God of nature, whose harmonies manifest but one, 
than to the God of the bible, whose doctrine of three persons 
constituting it only grows out of the relations this being sus¬ 
tains to the human race in its fallen condition. Had not this 
catastrophe been foreseen, and provision made to meet and 
avert the universal ruin incident to it, involving the neces¬ 
sity of a Saviour, which was Christ the Lord, who was to be 
born and die and to be raised again to accomplish this great 
purpose, there would have been no third person in the trinity, 
or, more properly, no trinity at all. We say, had man pre¬ 
served his original rectitude, there had been then, now and 
forever only God and his spirit, by which he creates and gov¬ 
erns the material universe. Hence, we see that the fall of 
man called into existence the trinity in unity, and was not at 
all essential to the existence and personality of God, and 
which was only consummated when Christ was born. 

That it was the one living God of the universe who became 
incarnate is evident from the following considerations : First, 
it was not the Holy Ghost, for in all dispensations, periods of 
time and eternity, his personal identity has remained the same, 
though that of the gospel is peculiarly one of the spirit; 
this, however, grows out of the fact that since the ascension 
of Christ all the , direct influences and communications God 
makes to men, or exerts upon the minds and hearts of men, is 
by the spirit , superseding all further angelic, patriarchal, 
Mosaic or prophetic teaching, only as the truths they record 
in the bible, are taken by the Holy Ghost and “ rendered 
quick and powerful,” producing conviction of their divine 
origin, selecting the most appropriate of these words, holding 
up and applying them to every man’s intellect and moral 
sense of right and wrong, as his circumstances require. 
Hence, according to the prophetic announcement, “when he, 
the Spirit of Truth, or Holy Ghost, or Comforter, is come, he 
shall take of the things of God and shall show them unto 


God and the World. 


497 


you ; he shall bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever 
I have spoken unto you,” thereby making these words of 
God spirit, life and power. “ The sword of the spirit, which 
is the word of God.” 

Neither can it be the Son of God who became incarnate, or 
he who was born in the city of David. Neither could it have 
been Christ preexisting, as separate from God the eternal; if 
there had been any such person he must have been either 
begotten or eternal; if he were the latter, then there were, and 
are, two eternal Gods , and if he was begotten, then he was no 
God at all, and no deity or divinity attaches to him. Do we 
not perceive, that if this Logos was begotten by God, and also 
its body which was born in Bethlehem of Judah, that all there 
was of Christ was begotten ? and as it involves a philosophic 
impossibility for any being to make his equal, and, therefore, 
that God can make another God equal with, and separate 
from, himself, which the very act of making implies, cannot 
be done; therefore such a Christ can be no person in the 
trinity. But the proposition investing the God of creation 
with a material body, such as that of man, thus modifying 
- himself by becoming both Father and Son, from thenceforth 
the embodiment of the deity, “the Lord God Almighty, 
makes all philosophic, harmonious and scriptural; ’ ’ there¬ 
fore, in the further consideration of this subject, we assume 
the position that God eternally had a substantial form of be¬ 
ing of such a nature that it occupied space, and that that form 
was the form of man, not only morally but also naturally, 
and that this being was so far spiritual and etherial, which 
terms we do not pretend to define, but use them to correspond 
with the revealed facts expressive of a nature susceptible of 
clothing, or investing himself with just such a material body 
as that of man, which he accomplished in the incarnation, 
and which from thenceforth was the intelligent spirit, mind 
and life of that body, and was as really and literally that of 
God as human bodies belong to mankind, and that this was 
simply a material body, constituting the indissoluble embodi¬ 
ment of the Godhead, the trinity in unity. 

63 


498 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER LVII. 

MATERIAL BODIES CONSISTENT WITH SPIRITUAL NATURE. 

We do not propose to go into a disquisition upon the relative 
powers or glory of the persons in the Godhead, to say whicli 
is greater or which is less, and for the very good reason that it 
is utterly beyond our power of conception ; indeed, we are so 
completely overwhelmed the moment we think of the ques¬ 
tions involved that we are glad to retrace the adventurous 
steps, perfectly contented to know and understand what is 
written in the great volume of God’s inspiration concerning 
himself. The questions and themes upon which it discourses 
have such depth of meaning, that the feeling which arises and 
which we deprecate the most is, inability to understand and 
adequately comprehend the ideas God has here disclosed 
and labored, by simplification, to bring within the grasp of 
human conception. 

In regard to many of the positions involved in this part of 
the subject, we have elsewhere said so much, that we need do 
little more here than arrange the arguments advanced. We 
must, however, go sufficiently into details to show what we 
think the scriptures teach respecting the nature and relations 
of God to our race. This will appear most prominently by 
the signification of the names by which he has chosen to 
reveal himself, together with the inspired history contained in 
the Bible upon the subject; and, as we do not write to please 
men, or to seek popularity at the expense of truth, we pay 
no deference whatever to the opinions of others. The only 
question by which we desire to be governed is, “ What saith 
the scriptures?” 

The contradictions and consequent confusion among philos¬ 
ophers and theologians are so many and palpable, that we 
have long since learned to heed the injunction, “Cease ye 


God and the World . 


499 


from man, for wherein is lie to be accounted of? To tlie law 
and to the testimony if they speak not according to this word 
it is because there is no light in them.” 

Now, if God did not think it unphilosophic and perma¬ 
nently dishonorable to take upon himself the “form of a ser¬ 
vant” (man’s), and to become clothed with a material body, 
we envy not the attitude of any poor, fallen fragment of 
human kind, who arrogates to himself such a position, and for 
which, to our mind, there appears to be no other reason than 
that such are infected with the Platonic philosophy, which 
taught that in matter dwells the malignant principle of evil, 
and which is forever in antagonism to the spiritual principle, 
which is good, or God. But even this philosophy, as it came 
from Plato, before being corrupted by the Papal fathers, did 
not think it so inconsistent or degrading to be allied with mate¬ 
rial bodies, for he clothed his imaginary, subordinate deity, 
who gave life and form to the world, with a material body, 
assuming which when he plunged himself into the ocean of 
chaotic matter, out of which the world was made, and which 
from thenceforth became that body, thus communicating to it 
a spherical form, which was that of the Deity himself. 

The idea that God has no body or that he is possessed of 
no modification of material substance, which alone occupies 
space, is mere fancy ; philosophy is against it. We do not 
mean the philosophy “falsely so called,” to which Paul 
refers, but that which gives the reason of things. Natural 
and moral science, as well as physiology, are against it, which 
finds the highest intelligence in the highest and most exquisite 
forms of material organism, and that such are essential to 
human rationality. The common intelligence of the world, 
whether superficial or of the greatest profundity, is against 
it. Metaphysics are against it, teaching that if perfect imma- 
terialism is the nature of God, he cannot come in contact with 
matter so as to produce its change or motion, the one imply¬ 
ing the ‘other, and therefore he did not form or create the 
world, and cannot control or govern unintelligent matter, or 
bodies thus composed, because matter can only be moved or 


500 


The Philosophy of 


in the least affected, even in its simplest particles, by a ma¬ 
terial agent as the medium, and this material agent cannot be 
moved by any thing which is purely immaterial, because 
between the two, matter and no matter, there is no possible 
medium, the conclusion of which is, that a perfectly imma¬ 
terial being may desire, determine and will, and will forever, 
to create or move a body of matter, and not one of its parti¬ 
cles would or could obey, and, therefore, no such government 
could be exercised. 

The instinctive and reasoning conceptions of every think¬ 
ing mind, regardless of all theories, reject the supposition; 
these forever organize and locate the Deity, while he can have 
no locality unless he has a body, or unless he is an embodi¬ 
ment of less dimension than the universe; in fact, locality 
and organic being imply each other. It must also be remem¬ 
bered that this principle is implanted in the mind of man by 
the Creator himself, and if that Creator has no body or loca¬ 
tion, then why is man endowed with this false conception ? 
If God is the universe, why do we not recognize him as such ? 
If he is the God of Pantheism, being everywhere equally dis¬ 
tributed, or Plato’s Logos (soul of the world), why do we not 
conceive him to be such, and therefore be found instinctively 
and rationally paying our devotions at the shrine of the round 
world, the whole of which he pervades ? In vain may man, by 
inductive philosophy, or any flight of transcendentalism 
endeavor to escape the inborn, God-begotten conviction that 
God himself is a being, organic and local, of infinite intelli¬ 
gence and power, and we must add that this image or con¬ 
ceived form of the Deity is always that of the similitude of 
man himself. 

The history of idolatrous worship in the shape of its gods, 
with the exception of its lowest and most degraded forms, 
fashion them in the likeness of men; such were those of 
Chaldea, Persia, Greece and Rome. Indeed, the highest and 
most refined Christian idea of the one living and true God can¬ 
not be divested of an imagery after the likeness of man. In 
addition to this evidence, and vastly superior to it, is that 


God and the World. 


501 


contained in the written revelation God has given of himself, 
and which is harmoniously concurrent with all the teachings 
of nature bearing upon the subject, presenting God as a per¬ 
son, and Jesus Christ in the form of man, and yet “the 
express image of that person” Neither can a being endowed 
with the faculties of observation and reason adopt the athe¬ 
istic theory that there is no God, for with the legitimate use 
of these, he is perfectly conversant with forms of organic 
existence, which had no power to make, or cause themselves 
to exist; he is therefore driven to the admission of a great 
original and first cause of all things, the cause of causes. 
Indeed, a man to be an atheist must be reduced to such a con¬ 
dition of mental imbecility which cannot conceive the necessity 
of a cause, in order to produce an effect. We do not say that 
rational men may not profess atheism, but to be such hon¬ 
estly can but manifest this mental condition. 

Neither can we adopt the pantheistic idea which distributes 
God everywhere equally in the universe, and, if for no other 
reason, than that it makes his dimensions as large as the 
universe itself, and as this is boundless, so must the outlines 
of this imaginary Deity. Besides, if he is the life, and there¬ 
fore the essential part of the universe, and made it, as the 
same theory also contends, he must have made himself. 
Such ideas may float in the brain of idiots, but to be enter¬ 
tained by a rational man is humiliating to the race of which 
he is a member. Do we not perceive that if God is any thing 
less in size than the universe, that he must have, not only a 
substantial being, which alone is capable of occupying space, 
but must also have a location somewhere in it. 

Now, having a God dwelling in space, the question as to 
his dimensions is of but little consequence, and can only be 
approximately determined by philosophical reasoning aside 
from re relation, and is principally involved in the question 
whether a being of immense or small physical stature, is capa¬ 
ble of the greatest amount of intelligence and power. 

As we have already argued this question (see page 59), we 
need here only refer to the conclusions reached: First, that 


502 


The Philosophy of 


the greatest intelligence manifested by analogical organization 
is by that being possessing the most perfect and complicated 
physical structure, which is man, with a perfect brain. Sec¬ 
ondly, that all power is mental; therefore, the thing, creature 
or being possessing the greatest power, is the man endowed 
with the most perfect brain, other things, such as cultivation, 
etc., being equal, without regard to physical dimension. Of 
course this involves the conclusion that God himself not only 
has an organic being, but that that being may be no larger 
than that of man, and yet be the great original author and 
governor of all things; and especially is this argument con¬ 
clusive with Christians, or else they must abandon the idea 
that Christ is God. 

It would be reasonable to suppose that, if a being desired 
to make another, especially if he himself were perfect, most 
pleasing to himself and capable of rendering him the greatest 
amount of honor and glory, that he would take himself as 
the model, and fashion him as nearly as possible after his own 
likeness: we say as nearly as possible, because it is impossi¬ 
ble for any being to make his equal. The highest product of 
art or mechanical skill must be as infinitely below the artist, 
or the mechanic himself, who made it, as that the highest 
thing or being God ever made, or can make, is below his own 
greatness. 

The history of the creation of the first progenitors of our 
race show that this was indeed the plan upon which God exe¬ 
cuted that work; hence we read, “And God created man in 
his own image, after his likeness created he him, male and 
female created he them.” That this language indicates the 
natural, as well as the moral likeness of God, the latter of 
which the apostle defines as being “righteousness and true 
holiness,” is evident from the use made of it descriptive of 
the natural similitude between Adam and his son Seth. 
“And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat 
a son in his own image , after Ms likeness , and called his 
name Seth.” In addition to this, Paul declares that Christ, 
“who was found in fashion as a man,” was not only the 


God and the World. 


503 

image, but “the express image of his (God’s) person, ”prov¬ 
ing positively both the personality of God, and his identical 
likeness with that of Jesns of Nazareth, and his was the form 
of man. 

In another place Jesns is declared to be the i i Image of the 
invisible God.” We do not suppose that this being of whom 
Jesus, as man, was the express image and likeness, was of 
such a nature or substance that he could not take upon him¬ 
self a more gross material body, and all we mean by this 
term is specific gravity, such as that possessed by man, 
because he did this very act in the incarnation, and con¬ 
sequently what the scriptures teach in regard to this marvel¬ 
ous transaction is, that the one God of the universe whose 
existence runs parallel with duration, did thus, literally, take 
upon himself, in the sense, not as an inhabitant of a casket, 
but that of incorporation, just such a body as man’s, which 
from thenceforth was as really and truly the body of God as 
the bodies of men belong to themselves, and even this manner 
of expressing it is only using scripture language without in 
the least changing it, thus: “In him (Christ) dwelleth all the 
fullness of the Godhead bodily.” 

God was now the life, or animating principle, of that body, 
just as the life of man animates him, and that this being, thus 
embodied, is the unity of the trinity, and the only living God 
in the universe, and in which body alone could God manifest 
himself, or be seen by mankind, either in this or the immortal 
world; before this he was the “Invisible God,” but now the 
visible. Prior to this union the trinity existed, provisionally, 
in purpose and decree, but now in fact. 

In the further vindication of these propositions we intro¬ 
duce the history of the incarnation, as recorded by the evan¬ 
gelists. The term incarnation itself means enough to settle 
this whole question, and if it were a bible term, it would be 
conclusive, expressing the act of being invested with a human 
body, or assuming human flesh. There is a difference of opin¬ 
ion as to what thus became incarnate. Some suppose it to have 
been a preexisting, abstract person from the eternal God, or 


504 


The Philosophy of 


his spirit. A subordinate Platonic Logos, but we hold that 
it was the one God of creation himself, who thus took a 
human body of flesh. As we have already shown, had it been 
the Son, as preexisting, thus added to the Godhead, would 
have made four persons in it; the fact, however, is, that the 
Son was born into the world as the result of this union. 

The personal modification of God was the Son. This his¬ 
tory runs thus : “ And the angel said unto her, fear not, Mary, 
for thou hast found favor with God. 5 ’ This angel was Gabriel. 
“I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God,” as he 
announces himself; “ And behold she shall bring forth a son, 
and thou shalt call his name Jesus ; he shall be great, and shall 
be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give 
unto him the throne of his father, David, and he shall reign 
over the house of Israel forever, and of his kingdom there 
shall be no end. And the angel said unto her the Holy 
Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest 
shall overshadow thee, therefore that holy thing which shall 
be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And Mary 
said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord ; be it unto me 
according to thy word; and the angel departed from her. 
And she brought forth her first-born son and wrapped him in 
swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there 
was no place in the inn. And there were in the same country 
# shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock 
by night, and lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and 
they were sore afraid; and the angel said unto them, Fear 
not; for behold I bring you glad tidings of great joy, which 
shall be to all people, for unto you is born this day in the city 
of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” 

It is necessary to mark particularly what the angel was sent 
to declare was this day born in the city of David, and which, of 
course, did not exist as such before. The names of this per¬ 
sonage are, Jesus, the Son of the Highest, a Saviour, Christ 
the Lord. By this history we also see, what of the Godhead 
existed before, and who were joint workers in the accom¬ 
plishment of this wonderful event as expressed by Paul, 


God and the World . 


505 


“Christ made of a woman” These were the Holy Ghost 
which came upon the woman, and the power of the highest 
which overshadowed her, and which was God. Matthew, 
quoting from Isaiah, says: “Behold, a virgin shall be with 
child and shall bring forth a son, and his name shall be called 
Emanuel,” which Luke says, being interpreted means, “God 
with us.” God with man, incarnate, invested with a human 
body, which is also in accordance with this scripture: “Where¬ 
fore when he cometh into the world he saith, sacrifice and 
offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared for 
me.” This was not the body of Jesus, or Christ, or the Son, 
or of the Saviour, or of the Lord, neither of Emanuel, but 
that God himself became all these by this embodiment. Had 
it been the body of any of these, except that of God himself, 
implying that the other indispensable constituents of a living 
being of which this was the body, existed before, but without 
a body, as for example the body of Jesus, it would prove 
that Jesus existed before without a body, and this would not 
only make four persons in the more than trinity, but contra¬ 
dict the declaration of Gabriel, that Jesus was born on the 
day he made it, “in the city of David.” So the evidence 
accumulates as we advance in the argument, and can only be 
resisted by the abandonment of divine, and substitution of 
human, authority. 

John i : “In the beginning was the word, and the word was 
with God, and the word was God ; the same was in the begin¬ 
ning with God. All things were made by him, and without 
him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, 
and the life was the light of men. And the word was made 
flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, as of the 
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” In 
order to make out the theory that the expression “word,” 
which is here said to have been with God , implies two persons 
exclusive of the Holy Ghost, as existing in the beginning of 
the world, John’s explanation and positive declaration to 
the contrary has been entirely overlooked, hence an erroneous 
conclusion has been reached. He says, “And the word was 
64 


506 


The Philosophy of 


God” Now, if there was another God besides the one which 
the term “ word” here signifies, namely, God, then there was 
absolutely two Gods, both of whom created the world, because 
its creation is ascribed to both. 

Men are sure to run into error whenever they attempt to 
give interpretations from garbled expressions, or passages of 
the inspired writings, without reference to the explanations 
and modifications they themselves furnish of their meaning. 
But John also says, “The Word was made flesh” not simply 
dwelt in flesh, as a tenant in a mansion, but he, the Word 
(God), was made fleshy clearly conveying the idea that he 
incorporated himself in a body of flesh, adding a third person 
to the Godhead, but still remaining one God, and he thus 
“dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the 
only begotten of the Father,” and yet God himself “manifest 
in the flesh.” 

The birth of this wonderful son was different from any 
other, either of angels or men, and hence he was the only 
begotten son of the Father. Here, then, we have the doctrine 
clearly taught, that the God of creation himself was made 
flesh—became incarnate by the investment of a human body, 
which was thus prepared, “made of a woman,” by the Holy 
Ghost and himself, he also thereby became Emanuel, “ God 
with us,” whom to behold is to see manifested the glory of the 
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Not only 
the Son, but the Father, also, as such, thus came into existence, 
because as this was the only son of the Father, of course he 
was not Father until the son was born; there was God the 
eternal, but Father only in decree. The material composing 
this body was not the Son, but that being animated by such 
an alliance, as God being made flesh, brought the Son to birth, 
and by this Emanuelization of himself, he also became the 
Father. To illustrate: A man, for instance, is no less a man 
because he invests himself with a crown and kingly robes, 
which is his right; yet, if he is a prince, this investment makes 
him a king, which he was not before and never could have 
been without them, being the insignia of his office. It is not, 


God and 2he World. 


507 


however, the robes and crown that is the king, no more than 
that the prince is king without them, but it is the change of 
the lawful investment that makes him king. So, God was God 
alone before he became invested with mortal flesh, a material 
human body, but by the act he became God the Father and 
God the Son, neither of which was he before. Is it not evi¬ 
dent that the investment was no more the Son than God was 
Father, until he took it on himself ? But the one act begat 
the Son, by making God himself the Son, and as he was the 
“ only begotten Son,” his birth made God what he was not 
before, “The Father.” Until the birth of this only Son, God 
could no more have been God the Father than he could have 
been God the Son, before the son was born. 

In this wonderful transaction, therefore, we cannot fail to 
see that God the eternal, clothed with spiritual substance 
alone, until now, whatever that was, ceases to be such alone, 
and by this emergement of himself, becomes the tangible 
manifestation of God in the fleshy 

The Father and Son, 

United in One. 

And this union being the source of the Holy Ghost, for 
Jesus said, “ He proceedeth from the Father and the Son,” 
thus presenting to the eternal astonishment of angels and men 
the Father, Son and Holy Ghost embodied, hence the trinity 
of the Godhead. With this view we are able to comprehend, 
or at least to appreciate the language of Paul, summing up 
this whole matter: “In him dwelleth all the fullness of the 
Godhead bodily,” every word of which is of infinite import, 
and which none but the God of inspiration could have com¬ 
posed. 

This view also precludes the possibility of making dis¬ 
criminations among the persons in the trinity, saying which 
is greater and which is less, because presenting all in indis¬ 
solubility ; indeed, the doctrine of the incarnation is simply 
that God vailed his glory, or modified, his awful presence, as 
he appeared to Moses, by the assumption of a human body, 
and do we not perceive that it would be just as pertinent to 


508 


The Philosophy of 


discriminate against the spiritual substance composing his 
person, whatever that was before this assumption, as against 
that of his incarnation ? and even then, the discussion simply 
relates to the different kinds of substance, and the objection 
would be of force only against the particular nature of the 
material in which God preferred to make himself manifest to 
mankind, and whatever that might be the objector would 
have no opponent, as against the doctrine of the trinity as 
here presented, because no one ever did, or does, claim that 
the material composing this human body, such as it was when 
it lay dead in the tomb of Joseph, constituted the third per¬ 
son in the Godhead ; indeed, it seems that the only discrimi¬ 
nation possible to be made here is, that God should have 
invested himself with a human body at all, and which is just 
as forcible against his having any personal existence or local¬ 
ity, which is the same thing, and this is the horrible doctrine 
of the annihilation of the great God himself, perfectly strik¬ 
ing him out of his universe, and, therefore, out of being. 


God and the World. 


509 


CHAPTER LYIII. 

THE UNITY OF THE GODHEAD THE BURDEN OF PROPHETIC 
PREDICTION. 

Isaiah was moved thus to portray this event of events, this 
stupendous emergement of God in man: “For unto us a 
child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government 
shall be upon his shoulders; his name shall be called Won¬ 
derful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, 
the Prince of Peace.” That the names by which God has 
revealed himself to mankind are significant of changes of 
dealing, or dispensational relations with men, and, therefore, 
to be progressively unfolded, is evident from the whole his¬ 
tory of those relations, and those who suppose that Jesus, 
Christ, the Son, Emanuel, Jehovah, and even Lord, always 
existed, as indispensably indicative of the God eternal, with¬ 
out regard to the world or human race, and that, too, in its 
fallen state, read both the book of nature and inspiration 
to very little purpose. 

Why this Christ born, this Son given, had not the fall of 
man rendered the incarnation a necessity ? Why should the 
government be upon the shoulders of this “Wonderful,” 
and, to all appearance, a human God, if men had remained 
subject to the authority of God Almighty from his creation ? 
Why this Wonderful , if the mysteries of God manifest in the 
flesh had not been necessary in the great scheme of human 
redemption ? Why this Mighty Counselor-Day’ s-man, advo¬ 
cate, had not man revolted from the government of God, ren¬ 
dering reconciliation, or atonement, indispensable? Why 
Jesus, a Saviour, only that man was lost? Why Christ, a 
priest, only that a sacrificial arrangement, involving a ran¬ 
som, had become necessary for man’s redemption? Why 
should God be called the “Everlasting Father,” were it not 


510 


The Philosophy of 


that his only begotten Son was to be born as the Saviour 
of the world? Why Emanuel, only that God, the eternal, 
must let himself down, vailing his excessive glory by taking 
our mortal body, “ the form of a servant,” as his own, in order 
to bring the moral and sympathetic attributes of his nature 
somewhat within the reach of human conception, and thereby 
to its exaltation ? Why should he make himself known as 
Jehovah, only as it became necessary for him to unfold the 
great plan of human salvation, to the appreciation of the race % 
“Let not God Almighty speak to us any more; let him vail 
himself in our flesh, and thus modify his glory, so that he 
may speak to us and we not die,” in accordance with which 
the apostle says: “God, who, at sundry times and in divers 
manners, spake in times past to the fathers, by the prophets, 
hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.” 

Let us introduce a few passages illustrative of this truth. 
Isa. xliii, 3 : “For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of 
Israel, thy Saviour.” This Holy One was he that died and 
was raised again, thus : 4 ‘ For thou wilt not leave my soul in 
hell (the grave), neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see 
corruption.” Ps. lxviii, 4: “Sing unto God, sing praises to 
his name, extol him that rideth upon the heavens, by his 
name Jah (Jehovah).” Ex. xviii, 3: “That men may know 
that thou whose name alone is Jehovah art the Most High 
over all the earth.” Here we see that the name Jehovah 
means he who is the most high God over all the earth — 
universal sovereign — concerning which the revelator gives us 
the following: “And the seventh angel sounded, and there 
were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this 
world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, 
and he shall reign forever and ever.” 

“And God said unto Moses, I am that I am ; and he said, 
thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath 
sent me unto you.” “And God spake unto Moses and said, 
I am the Lord; and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac 
and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by my 
name Jehovah was I not made known unto them.” Moses 


God and the World. 


511 


was now to be sent to deliver the children of Israel from 
Egyptian bondage, therefore God changes his name from that 
of God Almighty to Jehovah, which signifies a Saviour, as 
well as the Lord, to reign over Israel after he had put them in 
possession of the promised land. 

Moses was the type of Christ, the great Saviour of the 
world, who is to deliver all his saints from the bondage of 
corruption, even that of the grave, and translate them into 
the glorious liberty of the children of God, including the 
whole house of Israel, “ Who shall come from the east and 
from the west, from the north and from the south, and shall 
sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of 
God,” who together shall sing the song of Moses, the ser¬ 
vant of God, and the song of the Lamb, which is that of uni¬ 
versal and eternal deliverance. 

From this we see how it is, 4 4 That in the fullness of time 
God sent forth his Son, made of a woman f and that in this 
wonderful child was concentrated all the fullness of the God¬ 
head, and who, from thenceforth, was the living exponent of 
all the wonderful names which God has ever employed to 
make himself known to a fallen race, even that of Lord, God 
Almighty, which he had in the vast profundity of eternity. 
That he is thus designated the following passages show, and 
they are descriptive of him as seen by the revelator in his 
final glory. Rev. xxii: “For the Lord God giveth them 
light (the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem), and the Lamb 
is the light thereof,”, therefore, the Lord God and the Lamb 
are one and the same. In this record we have the following 
peculiar passage several times repeated : £ ‘ Which was, which 
is, and which is to come,” and signifies the author of the book 
of Revelation, Jesus Christ, the explanation of which is as 
follows: “From Jesus Christ which is” (is now, when the 
revelator wrote), “ which was” (existed in vast eternity, the 
only God), “ which is to come” (in his final glory). Chapter 
i, 5 : “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, 
saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, 
the Almighty.” Here the Alpha and Omega comprehends 


512 


The Philosophy of 


all that is signified by the names Jesus, Christ, Lord and the 
Almighty. Again: u I was.in the spirit on the Lord’s day 
and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, 
I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last; and I turned 
to see the voice of him that spake with me, and I saw one like 
unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the 
foot, and girt about with a golden girdle ; his head and his 
hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes 
were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as 
if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of 
many waters. And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead, 
and he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, fear 
not, I am the first and the last, I am he that liveth and was 
dead, and behold J am alive again forevermore, amen ; and 
have the keys of hell and death.” The keys denote his vic¬ 
tory over them. 

Here again is the alpha and omega, and all the deified 
names embraced in it, Christ, Jesus, Lord, etc., all of which 
were dead, but living again as the Almighty. “And they 
rest not day and night, saying, holy, holy, holy, Lord God 
Almighty, which was, and which is, and which is to come.” 
Here again the same personage is pronounced the Lord God 
Almighty, receiving the worship and adoration of all the glo¬ 
rified in the immortal world: “And they sing the song of 
Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, 
great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just 
and true are thy ways thou king of saints.” 

The saints and subjects of this great king, Jesus Christ, 
who is now made the “only potentate, the Lord of lords and 
King of kings,” the great antitype of whom Moses was the 
type, and who had now been caught up to meet the Lord in 
the air preparatory to the burning of the world, having golden 
harps in their hands, and had gotten the victory, whom the 
revelator saw standing on a sea of glass, and by whom the 
Lamb is praised as the Lord God Almighty ; and it must be 
remembered that the represents him in the lowest 

and most human phase of his being. “And I heard the 


God and the World. 


513 


angel of tlie waters say, even so, Lord God Almighty, true 
and righteous are thy judgments.” Here he is the judge, and 
Jesus said, “The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed 
all judgment unto the Son.” It is, therefore, this judge, 
whom the revelator designates as the “ Lord God Almighty.” 

“And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and 
as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thun- 
derings, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God Omnipotent reign- 
eth; let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him, for the 
marriage of the Lamb is come.” Here, too, the names char¬ 
acteristic of this wonderful being is added, “The Omnipotent;” 
hence, we have the Lamb, who was dead but living again, 
designated as the Alpha and Omega, the Lord, Jesus, Christ, 
the Almighty and the Omnipotent. Surely this is the whole 
concentratiozi of the Deity, and it is to be marked that every 
characteristic indicated by these glorious names, except that 
of God alone, was dead and living again, and even that of 
God, when connected with that of Lord, signifying, reign ; 
and here even the saints are included, because, had the resur¬ 
rection of Christ failed, there would have been no kingdom of 
saints, and, therefore, no Lord to thus reign. But that it is a 
triumphant success we have the following: “And the seventh 
angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, 
the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our 
Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. 
And the four and twenty elders which sat before God on their 
seats, fell upon their faces and worshiped God, saying, we 
give thee thanks, O, Lord God Almighty, which art and wast 
and art to come, because thou hast taken to thee thy great 
power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and 
thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should 
be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy ser¬ 
vants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear 
thy name, small and great, and that thou shouldst destroy 
them which destroy the earth.” 

The prediction that the government shall be upon the 
shoulders of Emanuel, the child that was born, is here ful- 
65 


514 


The Philosophy of 


filled, and the unity of the trinity, holding the reins of unb 
versal empire, and receiving the homage of all the holy of all 
nations, the saints made perfect. Here we have the concur¬ 
rent testimony of revealed truth, which forever establishes the 
great doctrine, not only of the trinity, but also that in Eman¬ 
uel the whole Godhead meets and dwells in indissoluble 
unity. By the revelation of this wonderful being, we see that 
the fatherhood of God grows out of the sonship by his incar¬ 
nation, and, therefore, we repeat, that until the birth of the 
Son there was no Father but in purpose and decree; thus, he 
was the everlasting Father, but no more father, in fact, than 
the child, or Son, was such before he was born, and as 
such we see that the Father and Son reciprocally depend 
upon each other’s existence in the form thus merged in one. 
Before this Emanuelization both lived in decree even before 
the world was, and from the time its creation was determined, 
after which the whole history of the race was in full view of 
the mind of the Eternal, comprehending the entire work which 
it would be necessary for him to accomplish in the develop¬ 
ment of an immortal race, placed in an eternal kingdom 
of the same nature. 

It is from this consideration that Christ is said to be a 
“Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world,” but he was 
not slain, in fact, for more than four thousand years after¬ 
ward. “Who, in these last days, hath appeared to put away 
sins by the sacrifice of himself.” “He had glory with the 
Father before the world was,” but it was only in decree, 
which the following passage proves: “For the Holy Ghost 
was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified ',” and 
this was also more than four thousand years after the world 
was created. And this, also: “These things understood not 
the disciples at the first, but when Jesus was glorified, being 
raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, then remem¬ 
bered they that these things were written of him.” “And 
whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do, that the 
Father may be glorified in the Son.” This glory, we see, is 
the result of the incarnation, making God both Father and 


God and the World. 


515 


Son, tlie Father glorified in the Son, and the Son glorified 
by being begotten into this life, and resurrected into the 
immortal by the glory of the Father. To this agrees the pre¬ 
diction of the prophet: “Unto us a child is born, unto us a 
Son is given, and he shall be called the everlasting Father.” 

It is a common occurrence in scripture to speak of things 
which are to be, as though they already existed, and we sup¬ 
pose this is one reason why Peter says, “some things are 
hard to be understood.” Here is an illustration: “As it is 
written, I have made thee (Abraham) a father of many nations, 
when as yet he had no child.” Also, in the Psalms: “I 
will declare the decree the Lord hath said unto me, thou art 
my son, this day have I begotten thee.” This was spoken 
more than a thousand years before the event it describes and 
decrees, the birth of Christ, took place; hence, Paul lays it 
down as a rule, “God calleth those things which be not (and 
which are to be), as though they were.” 

How, if our views of God’s becoming incarnate, or Emanuel, 
this being the word the Holy Ghost used and interpreted it, 
so that no possible mistake need be made, are correct, it fol¬ 
lows that the words, acts and life, spoken, accomplished and 
possessed by Jesus Christ, were the words, acts and life of 
God himself, and, therefore, whosoever saw, heard and handled 
Jesus, saw, heard and handled God the eternal. Let us now 
see if Jesus himself does not corroborate these views, and, if so, 
do they not in the absence of all other proof conclusively estab¬ 
lish the identity and essential oneness of the Father and Son ? 
and we shall find that if Christ’s plain teachings are to be 
taken as authority settling any question they certainly do this. 

“Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou 
goest, and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto 
him, I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh 
unto the Father but by me, if ye had known me, ye 
should have known my Father also ; and from henceforth 
ye know him, and ham seen him. Philip saith unto him, 
Lord, show us the Father and it sutficeth us; Jesus saith 
unto him, have I been so long time with you, and yet hast 


516 


The Philosophy of 


tliou not known me, Philip ? (There are more Philips than 
one in the world, who, with the light elicited by the investiga¬ 
tion of Christ’s character and being have not yet risen above 
the conception that he was a very good man, and set a good 
example, but nothing more). He that hath seen me hath 
seen the Father also, and how sayest thou then show us the 
Father ? Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the 
Father in me ?” (The emergement was reciprocal; Jesus was 
in the Father, God, in the same sense that God was in him, 
bringing into existence the new paternal relation of Father 
and Son.) “ The words that I speak unto you I speak not of 
myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doth the 
works.” (He is the intelligence that speaks and acts through 
these organs of clay). ‘ ‘ Believe me that I am in the Father 
and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very works’ 
sake. I can of mine own self do nothing.” 

He had no will nor power to act independent of God that 
dwelt in him. His will was the will of God. His power was 
the power of God. His words were the words of God. His 
works were the works of God ; and to sum it all up in a sen¬ 
tence, his life was the life of God. “ As the Father hath life 
in himself, so hath he given to the Son that he might have 
life in himself.” As God’s life was undivided and eternal, so, 
by merging himself in this human body, it had life in itself, 
therefore “hath he given to the Son that he might have life in 
himself,” and, of course, from that time forth he was the 
eternal and only source of life, and of which there cannot be 
two ; if there were, it would be arguing the existence of two 
living and eternal Gods, because, if one derived his life from 
the other in any other manner than by the emergement of 
himself in the other, which had no life before, he would be no 
God at all, nothing but a created being, just like men or 
angels, or like Jesus himself, on the supposition that his life 
was derived from God and was mere animal life, or such as 
the human soul, and not that of God himself. Here we have 
the philosophy of the life of God, and the principle of its 
transmission, most beautifully harmonizing with the words of 


God and the World. 


517 


him “who spake as never man spake.” Mark their force 
and profundity. “As the Father hath life in himself, so hath 
he given to the Son, that he might have life in himself.” It 
is not that he gave the Son life, just as he gives it to men, but 
it was given to the Son just as the Father had it in himself, 
underived, and therefore eternal, and it was only by merging 
himself in a human body that the emergement, or the being 
thus formed, could have life underived in himself, and, there¬ 
fore, from this union, this Emanuel, as from God before it 
was formed, issues the life of every creature, present and to 
come, temporal and eternal, as its only source. 

That God was thus his life is further proved, as his death 
on the cross followed his withdrawment, when he exclaimed, 
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? and when 
he had thus spoken, he yielded up the ghost,” and was dead. 
The crucifixion did not take his life. “Ho man taketh my 
life from me; I have power to lay it down and to take it 
again.” This was God speaking, for his words were the 
words of God, and when the investment of human flesh was 
thus forsaken, both by God and the Holy Ghost, it was dead; 
and when those who were endeavoring to take his life saw 
this, “they marveled that he was so soon dead.” And as it 
was God who raised this dead body to life again, it was him, 
therefore, who said, “ I have power to take it again.” 

The expression, “My Father is greater than I,” could only 
have referred to the material body in its mortal state, in which 
both the Father and Son were united, for, after the resurrec¬ 
tion and the eternal union was complete, no such discrimina¬ 
tion is ever intimated. That it was God as he was before the 
incarnation, speaking through it, who said, “I have power to 
lay down my life and to take it again,” is even demonstrated 
by the fact that it was God who raised the dead body to life, 
or “took it again.” Rom. viii, 11: “But if the spirit of him 
that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you, the spirit 
that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your 
mortal bodies.” Chapter vi, 4: “That like as Christ was 
raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father.” Gal. i, 


518 


The Philosophy of 


1: “Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by 
Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the 
dead.” “ The God and Father of onr Lord Jesns Christ, the 
Father of glory, wrought in Christ when he raised him from 
the dead and set him at his own right hand, in the heavenly 
places, far above all principalities and powers, and might, and 
dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this 
world, but also in that which is to come.” Thus, the resur¬ 
rection was the eternal Emanuelization of God in an immor¬ 
talized human body, whose name was exalted above every 
name, in both worlds, even to that of Lord God Almighty, 
and who, therefore, must have been the embodiment of the 
wdiole Godhead, or else there must be two just such beings, 
and the former subordinate to the latter. 

The prediction, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten 
thee,” from the Psalms, and which the apostle applies to 
Christ’s resurrection, shows that he had two births, one into 
this life, the other into that which lies beyond the resurrec¬ 
tion, and is introductory to the immortal life, of the world to 
come, and together show, that God in all these characters, 
denominated Lord, Christ, Jesus, Son and Saviour, all of 
which designate what was born in the City of David, begotten 
by God and the Holy Ghost of the Virgin, “made of a 
woman,” was now dead and raised to life again on the third 
day, by God and his spirit, and that then God in all these 
characters came again into existence. This was Christ’s 
second birth, and had it not taken place, his first birth into 
the world would have been of no value; we had his death, 
example and precepts, but these alone were insufficient to 
save a sinner from his guilt. “He was raised again for our 
justification 

It was in the immortal body that God was to reign as 
“Lord of lords and King of kings” in his eternal kingdom. 
But the Lord was now dead, or he could not have been raised 
from it, and had he remained dead there would have been no 
saints over whom to reign, and no kingdom, delivered from 
the curse, in which to reign ; the government, therefore, could 


God and the World . 


519 


never have been on the shoulder of Emanuel. All was lost, 
hell and death had triumphed. “ If Christ be not risen, then 
they that have fallen asleep in him have perished” Jesus 
was dead and he was the only Saviour, therefore, no salvation 
was possible. Christ was the only sacrificial price of atone¬ 
ment and man’s only great high priest, but Christ was dead, 
and, therefore, reconciliation was impossible. The Son of 
God, who came to save and to give life eternal to men, was 
himself dead, and God had ceased to recognize him, “For he 
is not the God of the dead.” 

During these three dreadful days, therefore, nothing known 
or named of the Godhead but God Almighty and his spirit, 
remained in life, and had not the glorious resurrection taken 
place, all the Godhead, indicated by all the glorious names 
which allies him with any endearing relation to fallen man, 
lay lifeless in the ruins of the grave, and must there, forever, 
remain. The Lord was dead. Jesus was dead. The Son was 
dead.- Christ was dead, and the God of life, who could have 
no fellowship with death, being the work of sin, could not 
acknowledge him, and with such bereavement he, too, had 
ceased to be God the Father; his only begotten Son was 
dead, and, if not resurrected, the great God and his spirit 
would have remained just what they were before the creation 
of the world and race, and the whole attempted scheme of 
human salvation had proved a sublime failure. But let the 
voice of a grateful race sing in eternal rapture, “Now is 
Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them 
that slept.” Yes! amen, alleluia. On the morning of the 
third day he rose resplendent with the glory of the Father; 
death and the grave’s eternal conqueror, the Alpha and the 
Omega, the beginning (of the new creation of God) and the 
end. The stone-sealed cave of Joseph of Arimathea had no 
bars to hold the Prince of Life in death. “It was not pos¬ 
sible that he should be holden of it.” Leaving its lonely 
chambers, where still sleep dreamlessly his saintly compan¬ 
ions to rest yet for a little season, he now ever liveth to make 
intercession for the saints, and the union of the whole Deity 
became complete and eternal. 


520 


The Philosophy of 


CHAPTER LIX. 

SIGNIFICATION OF THE NAMES BY WHICH GOD HAS MADE 
HIMSELF KNOWN, CONTINUED. 

That the names by which the Godhead is indicated as born 
when God became Emanuel and died by his withdrawment, 
while hanging on the cross, but resurrected again into immor¬ 
tal life at his second Emanuelization, is the clear teachings of 
scripture, will appear still more forcible by the considera¬ 
tion of the testimony furnished by the revelator, as the sum¬ 
ming up of God’s last will and testament to the world. In 
presenting this evidence it will be necessary to do little else 
than simply quote the passages containing it, and we begin 
with Rev. xv: “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful 
witness and the first begotten of the dead, and the Prince 
of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us and 
washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us 
kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory 
and dominion forever and ever, Amen. Behold, he cometh 
with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which 
pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because 
of him, even so, Amen.” 

By the expression that Jesus Christ is the first begotten of 
the dead, we are to understand that he was the first fruits of 
the resurrection to immortality and eternal life. He had him¬ 
self, before this, raised others from the dead, as Lazarus and 
the little maid, but that life was only natural, and they died 
again. “But death had no more dominion over him,” and in 
this passage we see that his second birth was from the dead. 
Col. i: “And hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear 
Son, who is the image of the invisible God, the first born of 
every creature, who is the beginning, the first born from the 


God and the World. 


521 


dead ; that in all things he might have the preeminence, for it 
pleased the Father that in him shonld all fullness dwell. For 
by him were all things created that are in heaven and in earth, 
visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions 
or principalities or powers; all things were created by him, 
and he was before all things, and by him all things subsist.” 
He who is here declared to have been born from the dead, the 
image of the invisible God, having taken upon himself the 
form of a servant and thus “ found in fashion as a man,” and 
in whom it pleased the Father all fullness should dwell, be¬ 
cause God himself dwelt in him, was now “ God manifest in 
the flesh,” made visible, as Emanuel, “God with us /” there¬ 
fore no more invisible. Hence he said, “Ho man hath seen 
God at any time, but the only begotten of the Father, he 
hath declared him,” or manifested him ; and this declaration 
was to the effect “that he that seeth me hath seen the Father 
also.” 

If this being, who was himself before all things, and who 
was once dead, was not the embodiment of the whole God¬ 
head, how could all power, all dominion, the creation of all 
things in heaven and in earth, seen and unseen, thrones, prin¬ 
cipalities, and powers be ascribed to him ? It surely could not 
unless he was the one living and eternal God, essentially the 
same through all these modifications of his being ; and unless 
this be so, how can it be reconciled with another scripture, 
which says, “ He that made all things is God ?” In harmony 
with this, John says: “He was in the world, and the world 
was made by him, and without him was not any thing made 
that was made.” Of course it was not the material body that 
made all things, but Almighty God merged in it. Heb. i, 2, 
also corroborates the same view: “ God, who at sundry times 
and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by 
the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his 
Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom, 
also, he made the worlds.” “And when he bringeth in his 
first-begotten into the world he saith, and let all the angels of 
God worship him ; and unto the Son he saith, Thy throne , 0 


522 


The Philosophy of 


God , is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the 
scepter of thy kingdom.” 

This acknowledgment is prophetically addressed to the Son 
by the author of inspiration, in anticipation of himself being 
thus clothed with a material body, the image of the indwelling, 
invisible God. That wonderful prediction of Isaiah contem¬ 
plates him from a child born, till he becomes the mighty God, 
invested with universal government, the assumption of which 
commenced at his resurrection, and is to be consummated in 
the establishment of his immortal and eternal kingdom, in 
whose being was concentrated all the names, powers and 
attributes of the one living and true God, the unity as well as 
trinity of the Godhead, challenging the worshipful admira¬ 
tion of all intelligences, whether of men or angels—“ Let all 
the angels of God worship him.” After his resurrection 
Matthew records the following: “ And Jesus came and spake 
unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and 
in earth.” This of course made him the Almighty, or the 
u mighty God” of Isaiah. The momentary separation at the 
cross had passed, and the union between the everlasting 
Father and Son was complete and eternal. 

We wish here to examine one or two passages which are 
supposed to teach the idea that the Father and Son are not 
only so separate that they may occupy dilferent localities at 
the same time, but also that there will come a time when the 
Son will be subordinated and will assume a condition of 
humiliation in relation to the Father. One of these is found 
in 1 Cor. xv: “Then cometh the end, when he shall have 
delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he 
shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power, 
for he must reign until he hath put all enemies under his feet; 
the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death, for he hath 
put all enemies under his feet; but when he saith all enemies 
are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted which 
did put all things under him, and when all things shall be 
subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject 
unto him that did put all things under him, that God may be 
all in all.” 


God and the World. 


523 

Paul, to whom this work and scene was revealed, in his 
peroration “That God might be all in all,” writing to the 
Colossians, repeats it with the difference that, instead of God, 
as here becomes “all and in all,” makes Christ the “all and in 
all.” Chap, iii, 11: 44 But Christ is all and in all.” Thus show¬ 
ing that God and Christ are the same, which would be enough 
to explain the passage in the letter to the Corinthians were 
nothing more said. But to more perfectly understand this 
passage, and to show that it teaches no such sentiment as 
inferiority of any of the persons in the Godhead, we must 
remember the word of Jesus, who alone is capable of making 
such discriminations, if they are to be made at all, and that 
he declared his words to be the words of God himself, and 
that “I can of mine own self do nothing,” and therefore 
could not act independently of the Father, for said he again, 
44 The Father that dwelleth in me he doth the works.” Indeed, 
44 1 and my Father are one.” 

In regard to the work this passage contemplates, the de¬ 
struction of all God’s enemies, the following passages show, 
not only by whom it is to be effected, but that its consumma¬ 
tion is to be that of the whole Deity. 44 And he shall come in 
the glory of his Father with all his holy angels with him.” 
4 4 Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of 
heaven with power and great glory.” It is the Father and the 
Son in glorified union. 4 4 Behold, he cometh with clouds and 
every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, 
and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.” 
44 Jesus answered and said unto them, if a man love me he 
will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we 
will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” This 
coming and making his abode with men, as described by the 
revelator, shows that the Son of Man, thus coming in the 
glory of his Father, was the one God himself. 44 And I saw a 
new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first 
earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I, 
John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from 
heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, and I 


524 


The Philosophy of 


heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, behold, the taber¬ 
nacle (dwelling-place or abode) of God is with men, and they 
shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and 
be their God.” 

According to the promise made to the disciples, Jesus has 
now come, and has brought his Father with him, and has 
made his eternal abode with men, and, now mark, he who 
thus dwells with men is not the spirit, nor the Father, nor the 
Son, but it is God himself , embodying them all. God is now 
“all and in all,” and Christ is “all and in all.” He is 
the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Now, as 
we have seen that the destruction of all God’s enemies is the 
work of the whole Deity, we need only remark in regard to 
the expression, “Then shall the Son also himself be subject 
unto him that did put all things under him,” that it conveys 
no other idea than that the Son shall still be subject, as he 
always had been, to the Father, and, indeed, as it would be 
impossible for him to be otherwise, because “him and his 
Father are one.” The opposite opinion involves as much of 
a moral impossibility as it would for God to commit sin. No! 
He that always did the will of his Father could never cease to 
do that will. The error in supposing the contrary is founded 
on the hypothesis that there are two wills in the Godhead, 
and which, from the very nature of will , must be so separate 
that they may not only act independently but antagonistically 
to each other, for which supposition there is not the remotest 
evidence in the bible, but it constitutes the horrid doctrine of 
the disintegration of the Godhead, establishing the heathen 
notion of “Lords many and Gods many,” and against which 
all nature, as well as revelation, rise up in eternal conflict. 
No ! The Son does, and must forever, seek the glory of the 
Father as his own, and the Father that of the Son for the 
same reason ; no discordant element can ever exist in this per¬ 
fected unity of the Godhead, and the personality of the Son is 
not abstract, but one with the Father, and in the direction of 
the resurrected and glorified body, the whole Deity dwells as 
the perfection of beauty ; out of the Zion of the whole earth, 


God and the World. 525 

the new heavens and the new earth, God shines in eternal 
effulgence. 

The other passage of this character which we are to con¬ 
sider is, that descriptive of Christ in the garden, a misunder¬ 
standing of which makes him so distinct from God that he 
was on the verge of abandoning the world’s redemption. It 
is recorded Luke xxii, 41-44 : “And he was withdrawn from 
them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down and prayed, say¬ 
ing, Father, if it be possible, remove this cup from me; 
nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. And being in 
an agony, he prayed more earnestly ; and his sweat was as it 
were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And 
there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening 
him.” This cup which Jesus prayed might pass from him 
was not the cup of crucifixion, but that he might not die in 
the garden of Gethsemane, nor at that time. One of the 
evangelists records it thus: “Let this hour pass.” What he 
deprecated was, the possibility of dying in the garden, and, 
therefore, the scriptures which required his crucifixion would 
be unfulfilled; hence, the terrible agony of his mind. But 
his prayer was heard and answered, an angel came from 
heaven strengthening him, the cup passed from him, and he 
immediately arose and went forth to meet Judas and his 
band. Now, said Jesus to Peter, after reproving him for 
using his sword, “The cup which my Father hath given me, 
shall I not drink it?” Here is the cup of crucifixion, with 
all its terrible ingredients, but from drinking which he utters 
no complaint and manifests not the least weakness, but goes, 
as it was written of him, to derision and death. 

In confirmation of this view, we have the following passage: 
Heb. v, 7—“Who in the days of his flesh, when he had 
offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and 
tears unto him who was able to save him from death, and was 
heard in that he feared.” Thus, he was saved from this prem¬ 
ature death, of which he was afraid. We give it as our 
opinion, that had it not been for the murderous purpose of 
his enemies, he would have been left here by God to die as he 


526 


The Philosophy of 


did afterward on the cross. But the Holy Ghost foreseeing 
the wicked interference of men, wrote it in advance, which 
was to the effect that he was to pour out his soul unto death, 
not in the garden, but on the cross. The blood of atonement 
began to be shed in the garden, resulting from so much of the 
withdrawment of God, enfeebling the physical body, that 
Jesus supposed it possible that he might die then and there. 
It was God laying down his life, or forsaking the material 
body, of which he was the life, but again strengthened it to 
go to Calvary and endure the additional sufferings, which 
were not necessary in making the great atonement, and which 
were never prefigured by any type, which, had it been, would 
have tortured the Lamb before slaying it, hence, although 
“ Delivered by the determinate counsel of God (to die), yet by 
wicked hands he was crucified and slain.” We see by this, 
that any considerable withdrawment of God from this body of 
his incarnation would produce its death, which was slightly 
done in the garden, but he now goes to Calvary and makes the 
great propitiatory offering, ending with the exclamation, “My 
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” and bowed his 
head and died. But this question, and the seeming conse¬ 
quence, intimating his willingness to die in the garden, involv¬ 
ing at least the breaking of the scriptures, if not the ruin of 
the world, was only manifested when the body was partly 
dead, just as in the weakness of his infancy and early child¬ 
hood he failed to take in the great thoughts and purposes of 
God who dwelt in him. Hence it is said, “He grew in wis¬ 
dom, and in stature and in favor with God and man,” and 
this until he became from the child that was born, the 
“Mighty God.” 

That it involves mystery there can be no question, not, 
however, in the sense of being incongruous or unphilosophic, 
but because it relates to a being infinitely above us. Even the 
great apostle of the Gentiles, without controversy, makes this 
admission: “Great is the mystery of godliness, because God 
was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, 
preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received 


God and the World. 


527 


up into glory.” Yet here in the very language, admitting 
the mystery, the truth is declared, that it was God who was 
thus manifest (seen) in the flesh, and is substantially like that 
used in John’s description: “The word was with God, and 
the word was God and the word {God) was made flesh, and 
dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the 
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Here 
is the word, which is God invested with human flesh, who 
thus appeared in the world, preached to the Gentiles, and was 
received up into glory, and Paul says that it was his flesh 
that thus went up and entered into that within the vail, 
whether our forerunner is for us entered within the vail. 
That is to say his flesh thus entered. 

Why should not the great trinity of the Godhead in unity, 
or in any aspect relating to either person, be mysterious to 
man, when he cannot understand, or even approximate, the 
solution of the phenomena involved in his own nature \ Is 
the greatest and most profound intellect capable of compre¬ 
hending the philosophic connection of his own soul, body and 
spirit, so that no mystery remains ? Further still, is he able 
to comprehend the laws of mechanism entering into the 
structure of the simplest insect, endowed with the power of 
self-motion, so that no mystery remains ? And is it not mar¬ 
velous, with intellectual power so circumscribed, that he 
should assume to reject the doctrine of God’s manifestation 
to the world in a material body, because he is unable to com¬ 
prehend the philosophy involved in the nature and personal 
relations of the Godhead, as the trinity in unity? And is 
it not strange beyond conception, and, indeed, arrogantly 
wicked, that he should thus reject Christ against himself, 
when it is the only doctrine upon which depends his salva¬ 
tion, and which must be received and heartily acknowledged 
by man, with all its mysteries, or he suffer the loss of all 
hopeful prospect in the future world. He that honoreth the 
Son honoreth the Father also; they are one, and he can no 
more separate them than he can honor the one and dishonor 


528 


The Philosophy of 


the other, by esteeming him simply a man, or any thing less 
than God Almighty. 

This course is beautifully recommended in the following 
passage by Paul: “That their hearts might be comforted, 
being knit together in love, and unto all the riches of the full 
assurance of understanding in the acknowledgment of the 
mystery of God, and of the Father and of Christ.” In ac¬ 
cordance with this, we see that we may understand with the 
fullest assurance these mysterious relations, so far that the 
doctrine is revealed, of course for our enlightenment, and 
that there is nothing in nature contrary to it, and yet with an 
intelligence that did honor to the mind of an apostle, and 
might to that of an angel, much less to that of a man, 
acknowledge the incomprehensible mystery, not as conflict¬ 
ing with reason or created capacity, but infinitely above it. 
To say that God did not personally dwell in the body that 
was born in Bethlehem of Judea, as his own, is to say, either 
that his own personal nature was divided, dwelling partly in 
it and partly elsewhere, or that he did not dwell in it at all; 
or, to give it another modification, that God dwelt in Christ 
just as he did in the prophets and saints, inspiring and illu¬ 
minating them, by which he was, perhaps, more prominently 
endowed with saintly and prophetic character, but nothing 
more. Such a disposition to make of Christ will do for men 
in their darkness and madness to make, but it is not the truth 
of God. According to this we learn that it has pleased the 
Father to dwell in the hearts of these by his spirit, and even 
to make their bodies the temples of the Holy Ghost, but in 
this body it not only pleased the Father that all fullness 
should dwell, but that in it “dwelleth all the fullness of the 
Godhead bodily,” which could only be true by God himself 
dwelling in it as his own. 

There is but one other view which can possibly be adopted, 
namely, that which gives Jesus no personality at all, claim¬ 
ing that his crucifixion and sufferings were merely in appear¬ 
ance, a mere illusion, an ideality. But those who suppose 
this should be reminded that it is the old doctrine of the 


God and the World. 


529 

Nicolaitans, which, thing “I hate,” says the God of revela¬ 
tion. Now, if there were any doubts in reference to which of 
these views was the true one, we would give that one which 
exalts and honors the Son their benefit, remembering that 
“he that honoreth the Son honoreth the Father also,” and, as 
he says, “Whosoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of 
him will I be ashamed before my Father and his holy angels.” 
This is when he comes in the “glory of his Father.” From 
this concentration of the great Deity beams forth such excess¬ 
ive splendor that throws into eternal eclipse the bright, 
shining sun within the transparent vmlls of the golden city. 
“They have no need of the sun to lighten it, for the Lord God 
and the Lamb are the light thereof.” 

This same being who had been slain as the Lamb of God, 
but now resurrected by the glory of the Father, Thomas 
addressed as “my Lord, and my God,” which acknowledg¬ 
ment was either true or Jesus permitted this apostle to entertain 
a most pernicious and fatal error, one which robbed the Lord 
God of his glory, awarding it to another, which God could 
never permit, and maintain his character for truth and veracity, 
thus solemnly and awfully proclaimed. “I, the Lord, am a 
jealous God, and thou shalt have no other gods before me. 
I am the Lord ; that is my name; and my glory will I not give 
to another. Isa. xlii, 8. 

On one occasion when Jesus was teaching upon this sub¬ 
ject, he intimated that there were circumstances which 
prevented him from making it any more clear than he had 
done. To the disciples he had just declared, “I and my 
Father are one, and he that hath seen me hath seen the Father 
also.” And then immediately prayed to the Father, and said 
“I go to the Father.” But though he thus prayed for the 
bestowment of favors, he immediately added: “All things 
that the Father hath are mine, therefore,, said I, he shall 
take of mine and shall show it unto you,” showing that he 
actually prayed to himself, and as a reason added, “These 
things have I spoken unto you in proverbs (dark sayings of 
the wise requiring interpretation) but the time will come when 


530 


The Philosophy of 


I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but will show 
you plainly of the Father.” In this proverbial teaching 
Jesus had used this language: “I came forth from the 
Father and am come into the world ; again, I leave the world 
and go to the Father; I ascend to my Father and to your 
Father, to my God and to your God.” It does not neces- 
sarily follow from this that he meant to teach that he who was 
born in the city of David, or that wdiich was thus born, came 
from another locality, or world, because he came from God 
his Father and into this, for this was true of his birth, and it 
was God only who came from another world ; he was begotten 
by God and the Holy Ghost, and thus came into the world. 
Neither does it follow that the Father was in some other 
locality, and not in him, because he prayed to him, for, at the 
grave of Lazarus, he assigned as a reason for thus praying, 
that the people who heard him might believe that the Father 
had sent him. “ I know that thou hearest me always, but for 
the people which stood by I said it that they might believe 
that thou hast sent me.” It was, therefore, in accommodation 
to their views that he thus prayed. 

Jesus had the most intense desire that the Jewish nation 
should believe in him, he therefore refrained from saying or 
doing any thing which might unnecessarily offend them. 
They charged him with assuming to be God, because he for¬ 
gave sins, and with blasphemy because he even claimed to be 
the Son of God. Now, if they were thus offended, what 
would they have been had he told them what he inspired Paul 
afterward to write, that “In him dwelleth all the fullness of 
the Godhead bodily.” “Iam the Creator of all worlds ; with¬ 
out me was not any thing made that was made,” as John 
declares; or, as Isaiah has it: “I am the Redeemer, and 
besides me there is no God.” “ My words are God’s words, 
my acts are his acts, my life is his life. No man hath seen 
God at any time, but I manifest him, so that he that seeth me 
hath seen the Father also ; I and my Father are one.” While 
alone with the disciples he gave them this positive instruction, 
and that, too, in answer to the direct question, “show us the 


God and the World. 


531 


Father,” and whatever there may be mysterious or seeming 
equivocal in regard to it: “ In that day (when I come again) 
ye shall know the I am in the Father and the Father in me. 
I will then show you plainly of the Father, but until then 
believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or 
else believe for the very works’ sake, for it is the Father that 
dw^elleth in me, he doth the works.” Thus did Jesus 
endeavor to impress on the minds of the disciples the great* 
doctrine of the unity of the Godhead, and of the substantial 
nature of the things of the world to come. 

There is another supposed objection to this oneness of the 
Godhead, which is drawn from the mediation of Christ, and 
is of sufficient importance to demand consideration. We 
have already seen that the three persons engaged in making 
up the records in heaven, preparatory to the great judgment, 
are one. “ There are three that bear record in heaven, the 
Father, the Word (Son) and the Holy Ghost, and these three 
are one,” which statement alone settles the question, especially 
wdien corroborated by all the arguments we have here ad¬ 
vanced in defense of the unity of the Godhead, and which 
cannot be successfully assailed without assuming the scrip¬ 
tures to be a book of the most palpable contradictions, and 
which result can only be obtained by the adoption of that 
erroneous principle of interpretation, which draws its conclu¬ 
sions from passages admitting only of inferential testimony; 
indeed, if those passages which speak upon the subject in 
positive and unequivocal language, such, for instance, as that 
in which Jesus says, “I and my Father are one,” “I am 
in the Father and the Father in me,” and consequently, 
“He that hath seen me hath seen the Father also,” are 
allowed to settle any question, they do this. According to 
this language the idea is conveyed that in the same manner in 
which God was in Christ, Christ was in God, the conditions 
of which nothing but reciprocal incorporation can justify. 
This truth, thus stated, as we have seen, most beautifully 
harmonizes with the whole history of the birth, life, death 
and resurrection of the “ Christ of God,” and with the excep- 


532 


The Philosophy of 


tion of the three dreadful days during which he was dead, 
and God thus separated from his material body, presents the 
whole Deity in one eternal unity. 

Indeed, the idea is only that which supposes Christ’s pre¬ 
existence with the additional one, that that which previously 
existed was no Platonic Logos or inferior Deity, but the one 
eternal spirit himself, the great inhabitant of eternity. From 
the expression, 4 4 1 ascend to my Father and to your Father, 
to my God and to your God,” the inference is drawn which 
makes two Deities, occupying separate localitiQS at the same 
time, and yet when the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of 
the prophet David, concerning this ascension, he says, 4 4 God 
is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a 
trumpet.” Hence, when Christ ascended, God ascended, if 
we let the author of the bible explain his own meaning. 

Would it not be doing violence to any book, or the senti¬ 
ments of any author, to select passages which admit of cer¬ 
tain inferences, and assume such to be the opinions of the 
author, and even denying him the privilege of explaining his 
meaning elsewhere in his book? And yet this is the manner 
in which men wrest the teachings of the book of God, and very 
often, not only to their own destruction, but to that also of 
those who imbibe their errors. It is thus also inferred, from 
the following passage, that there are three persons separate 
from each other, not only locally but in disposition, engaged 
in the work of mediation: 44 There is one God and one 
mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.” 
But Paul who wrote these words, also wrote this explana¬ 
tion : 4 4 To wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world 
unto himselfP Hot that Christ was engaged in reconciling 
men to God as a separate being, but unto himself. Thus, 
clearly attributing the great work of the mediatorial office 
in the reconciliation of God and man, to the unity of the 
Godhead. 

To such preposterous conclusions have these perversions of 
scripture led almost the whole theological world, that the con¬ 
ception is by no means uncommon, which views God and 


God and the World . 


533 


Christ, as engaged in this work, not only locally separate as 
two distinct beings, but also antagonistic in their feelings and 
desires toward mankind. In this picture God is made to 
stand restless, with a drawn sword called “justice” raised 
high, all ready and desirous of striking the offender with 
instant destruction, possessing a relentless and implacable 
disposition toward mankind, and is only prevented from the 
gratification of such feelings by the interposition of Christ, 
who steps forward and grasps the burning edge of the wrath¬ 
ful instrument, arresting its terrible and exterminating flight, 
just as a sane man would that of a raving maniac; and be¬ 
cause there is no scripture which teaches this terrible concep¬ 
tion, its devotees have succeeded in making some for the pur¬ 
pose. Hence, we often hear the following quoted, as though 
it were in the bible: “God, out of Christ, is a consuming 
fire.” The passage thus perverted is this: “For our God is a 
consuming fire,” and so he is to the finally incorrigible, and so 
also is Christ; hence, we read of the wrath of the Lamb.” 
In contrast to this we find the great and glorious truth run¬ 
ning through all God’s bible, representing him as providing, 
in his own unassisted contemplations and natural sympathies, 
the great scheme of human salvation for lost men, and that, 
too, before man was created, or the Lamb of God, as such, 
existed ; who, as we have seen, was a necessity in the accom¬ 
plishment of the great work involving the incarnation of God, 
who, in the fullness of time, disrobed himself of his glory, 
only as it shone out in the “man of sorrows.” God in Ms 
humiliation came and radiated the lost hope of man, by the 
hallowed announcement, “God so loved the world, that he 
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
might not perish, but have everlasting life.” And he that 
spared not his own son, but freely gave him up for us all, 
how shall he not with him, also, freely give us all things % 
How infinitely wide of the truth, therefore, is the blasphe 
mous notion of the existence of antagonisms in the Godhead, 
or that Christ is any more mercifully or lovingly disposed 


534 


The Philosophy of 


toward fallen man, than was God, before there was any Christ, 
or if there never had been any. 

But it may be further objected that the language Jesus 
used in his prayer for his saints — to the effect that they 
might be one with the Father, as he himself was one with 
him—does not admit of the construction we have put upon it, 
and shows that the same oneness existing between the Father 
and Son, equally exists between him and his saints. ‘ ‘ That 
they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, 
that they also may be one in ns,” —John vii, 21. Now, we 
are ready to admit that if there were no other instruction 
upon this subject than this text, and the one in which Jesus 
declares “ I am in the Father, and the Father in me,” and if 
the conclusion would harmonize with the other scripture 
teaching in regard to him, and all meaning that Jesus was in 
the Father, in the same manner and to the same extent that 
those for whom he prayed were in him, we would have noth¬ 
ing more to say, but as this is not the case, let us look for the 
true meaning. 

If, then, this is the true teaching of the passage, it follows 
that God was no more interested or otherwise engaged in the 
birth of Christ, than in that of every man for whom he thus 
prayed. But this is in palpable conflict with its history and 
the inspired teaching in regard to this Son, to the effect 
that he is the only begotten of the Father , while the other 
view makes him nothing more than the men for whom he here 
prayed. The question now is, in what sense can this passage 
be fulfilled and not teach the idea that God and Christ are no 
more corporeally one than God and his saints are such % In 
regard to the first question, all we have to say is, that if w r e 
have not already shown it to be established, by the harmony 
both of revealed truth and the philosophy of the transaction, 
then what can be ? 

In relation to this text we remark, that it simply brings 
to view the reconciliation, or atonement, of these subjects of 
Christ’s prayer with the Father and himself—in other words, 
to make them at one with God. “ That they may be one with 


God and the World. 


535 

us,” one in spirit, one in sympathy, one in submissiveness to 
the government of God. Thus, “ God was in Christ reconcil¬ 
ing the world unto himself.” And when the curse shall be 
taken away, and these saints made immortal, the prayer will 
receive its answer, and the great at-one-ment will be finished. 
As Jesus was thus one with the Father also, so he here 
prayed that those who believed in him might not only thus be 
one with him, but that they might be with him in his final 
glory. (See Atonement.) 

But who does not see that those for whom Jesus thus prayed 
were not expected to be merged, as Jesus himself was, in the 
Godhead, so that it would be as true for them as for him to 
say, “ I and my Father are one,” and “ He that seeth me hath 
seen the Father also?” Thus, while the saints may in spirit 
be one with the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, it is also true 
that these three, united in one glorified body, constitute the 
one living and true God. 

There is another class of passages which represent Christ 
as sitting, or standing on, or at the right hand of God, in 
regard to which it is only necessary to say, that like that 
which declares, u There are three that bear record in heaven,” 
and that in the absence of other positive proof or instruction, 
admit of inferences to the effect that there are two or three 
local gods in heaven. Yet, having this positive instruction, 
any such inferences merit the rebuke of ‘ ‘ handling the word 
of God deceitfully.” Such a course would not only make 
any author contradict himself, but teach the grossest absurdi¬ 
ties. For instance, because Sir Isaac Yewton says the sun 
rises and sets, he therefore teaches that the earth stands still 
and the sun revolves around it; or, that gravity is not a uni¬ 
versal, an invariable law, because it admits of peculiar phases, 
such as that which governs the eccentric orbit of comets. 

How, if we would find solid foundation in regard to this 
great subject, we must plant our reasonings upon the great 
truth that the voice of universal nature equally proclaims 
there is a God, and that her harmonies and adjustments 
admit of but one, he having one mind and one will. To this 


536 


The Philosophy of 


we hear the voice of written revelation respond, there is one 
God ; and if, in its further detailed instructions, it proclaims 
“There is one mediator between God and man, the Man 
Christ Jesus,” it also furnishes this explanation, showing 
these are not two Gods, to wit: “That God was, in Christ 
reconciling the world unto himselfP Mark, it is not that 
Christ is abstract, or out of God, reconciling the world unto 
God, but in him reconciling or making these saints, for whom 
he prayed, one with himself, and, therefore, one with the 
Father, because he and his Father are one, and that, though 
there are three that bear record in heaven, yet the answer is, 
“ these three are oneP This is, therefore, like any great truth 
of revelation, all harmony, scriptural and philosophic. 

Upon the light now shining upon this great and grand sub¬ 
ject, can we come to any other conclusion than that the one¬ 
ness of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, in eternal unity, 
became complete in the resurrection of Christ from the dead, 
and from thenceforth and forever \ “ The Lord is one Lord, 

and besides him there is no God,” and by no created eye of 
angels or men immortal will any other be seen as God, or 
any phase of God. 

He is the concentration of the whole Deity, and is simply 
“Our Lord Jesus Christ,” “in whom dwelleth all the full¬ 
ness of the Godhead bodily.” Mark the force and compre¬ 
hensiveness of this declaration; it is not simply that Jesus 
was a God, such as Moses was made to Pharaoh, or a God 
according to any ideal or abstract conception which may be 
entertained of him, but that in his person God dwelt, and it 
was not simply by his spirit, as one of the persons of the God¬ 
head, but in his fullness did God thus dwell; and this is not 
all, for it was in all his fullness he thus dwelt, and lest it 
should still be supposed that outside of this personality there 
was some God or phase of God, allied with the universe or 
dwelling somewhere in it, the apostle adds, “In him dwelleth 
all the fullness of the Godhead.” And again, as if antici¬ 
pating the doctrine of the diffusiveness of God, as being ev¬ 
erywhere equally existing, and nowhere in particular, as 


God and tee World . 


537 


expressed in the Catholic creed, “God is a pure spirit hay¬ 
ing no body,” does the great apostle give expression to 
the great declaration that “In him dwelleth all the fullness 
of the Godhead, bodily” Thus, by the aid of inspiration, 
does he labor, even to the exhaustion of language to describe 
the centralized and bodily localized God of the worlds, and 
from the moment of the resurrection by the glory of the 
Father, was he the one living and true God, a description 
of whom exhausts all the deified names of inspiration, upon 
which theme hear this same apostle by divine strokes, how he 
endeavors to settle this great question: “ That the God of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, according to the 
mighty working of his power which he wrought in Christ, 
when he raised him from the dead and sat him at his own right 
hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and 
power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is 
named , not only in this world, but also in that which is 
to come.” 

We do not object to any idea of God expressed by any 
scripture language, but we do insist that the author of the 
language shall be permitted to explain and illustrate the 
meaning of such language, and that no man shall be per¬ 
mitted to adopt a meaning given by any human author, of 
any age or notoriety, or give an original one which shall in 
the least conflict with any language or word of inspired 
truth, when thus defined. Any deviation from this principle 
reduces the bible to a mere human production. 

For instance, if God is a spirit, his Emanuelization illus¬ 
trates what is meant by it, and is thus explained: “The 
second man, Adam, was made a quickening spirit;” and it no 
more follows that because God is a quickening spirit that he 
is nothing but a spirit, than that the second man Adam 
had no material body, because he was a quickening spirit, or 
that either person was a pure spirit, having no body, as the 
Catholic creed claims God is. What is a quickening spirit? 

The doctrine of the scholastic theology, modernly denomi¬ 
nated nominalism, and adopted by the German neologists, 
68 


538 


The Philosophy of 


claims that the great characters, places and inhabitants of the 
future world, as revealed in the bible, are not real, but its 
language only means the resemblance of things, and that the 
things exist only in appearance. But this is the same doc¬ 
trine against which Jesus sent his angel to protest to the 
Apocalyptical writer. To the church of Ephesus which had 
not become infected with it, he said: “But this thou hast, 
that thou hatest the doctrines of the Mcolaitans, which I also 
hate.” This church is the symbol of the apostolic age, but 
when he delivered his message to the church of Pergamos, 
the symbol of the church when Papacy had become firmly 
established, into whose creed Origen had introduced the 
Platonic philosophy, of which church it was said “where 
Satan dwelletli ,” we have the following : “So hast thou them 
also that hold the doctrine of the Mcolaitans, which thing I 
hate; repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly and will 
fight against them with the sword of my mouth.” The doc¬ 
trines these Mcolaitans advocated were, that the things 
relating to futurity existed only in appearance. Christ did 
not suffer on the cross, or exist in reality, but merely in 
appearance. The angels, saints, God, Christ, heaven, hell and 
the judgment were not real, only apparent existences. That 
these words signify simply resemblances. 

Spirits and spiritualism is defined to be the opposite of 
materialism ; hence, Papacy obtains its eternal, future heaven, 
and defines it as being not a place but a state, its inhabitants 
being introduced through the fires of purgatory instead of 
the resurrection, all of whom are bodiless spirits and such will 
forever remain; she has not the faintest idea of the resurrec¬ 
tion of the body, all of which God not only disapproves but 
hates. But the revelation God has given us of himself, his 
angels and immortal saints, and the place of their abode, 
stand in the widest contrast to this heathen philosophy. He 
here represents himself as being invested with a human body, 
which was the express image of his own prior person, 

‘ 4 Emanuel, God with us.” He withdrew from this body while 
it hung on the cross, and it died. He took it again from the 


God and the World. 


539 

dead on the third day, which was still not a spiiit, but the 
identical body that was crucified, composed of flesh and 
bones. It underwent no change afterward, ‘ ‘ but was the same 
that ascended to heaven, that also first descended into the 
lower parts of the earth,” (the grave) and on the authority of 
his angelic escort “he shall so come again as he was seen 
going into heaven and this is the unity, the great centraliza¬ 
tion and embodiment of the Godhead. 

That the saints are to have their own bodies that died in the 
resurrection, fashioned like Christ’s glorious resurrection 
body; that this earth, purified by fire and recreated in the 
last time, is to be the eternal abode of these immortal saints, 
angels, and of God himself with them. Here are the sub¬ 
stantial doctrines of Christianity: “The substance of things 
hoped for,” not shadows; and who does not see that they 
stand in irreconcilable contrast to the unsubstantial, visionary, 
intangible dogma of the immaterialism or heathenism of Plato, 
Origen, the Catholic church, the French academy, or of the 
Leipsic university, substantially agreeing that the words of 
scripture only mean resemblances, and not realisms. This is 
indeed the logical sequence of the doctrine of the immate- 
rialists, for if God manifest in the flesh was such only in 
appearance, and not a material organized being, then he was 
no being at all, for a mere appearance is simply an allusion, 
not a reality. Therefore the doctrines of Plato, Origen, the 
Catholic church, the German neologists and the Leipsic uni¬ 
versity, summed up in all their important features, are simply 
those of the Hicolaitans, emenations from Satan’s seat, and let 
it be known they are those which God hates, and for holding 
which their defenders must either repent or perish. 

Why should he not hate such sentiments ? Where is the 
man, even, who would not hold the report, coming from what¬ 
ever source, as a gross calumny, that he did not exist, and that 
his name was simply a resemblance? Ho, the substantial 
doctrines of the sacred scriptures have their foundation in the 
resurrection of Jesus Christ and his saints from the dead, 
presenting them above all future liability of decay or dissolu- 


540 


The Philosophy of 


tion, spiritual, glorious, powerful, honorable, incorruptible 
and immortal bodies, but still as really material, organized 
beings as they were before death ; and philosophy is not phi¬ 
losophy if the apposite doctrine, that of pure immaterialism, 
is not perfect annihilation, and we instinctively shrink back 
from its dreadful vortex, rejoiced to know that God’s great 
revelation teaches no such sentiment, and all that man can 
know of the nature of the eternal future is contained alone in 
that. Without a knowledge of this, Plato might have been 
excusable for his ignorance, manifested in his visionary spec¬ 
ulations of a future state, but no man with the bible in his 
hands can set up such a vindication. 

We fearlessly put the word of God, written both in nature 
and revelation, against the sneers of the bigot, the cavils of 
the skeptic, the criticism of the would-be knowing, with 
whom a new thought is synonymous with heresy, and chal¬ 
lenge the world of mind to enter earnestly into this great mine 
of exhaustless truth and knowledge, regardless of the opin¬ 
ions of the past or present, dashing aside as a venomous ser¬ 
pent the foolish notion that the great doctrines of inspiration, 
or, indeed, any of them, are settled by the learning of the past 
beyond further discussion, remembering that reforms never 
began by the professional men of any age, but always with 
the common people. How can men progress, or help the age 
to do so, beyond wliat is written in the books, when it is their 
boast that they always thought and contended for the same 
things they now do, who, indeed, boast in this phase of infal¬ 
libility ? In what age of the world did the man live, or who 
was he, from among the high professional class, so humble, 
magnanimous and progressive, as to acknowledge that he was 
once ignorant, at least, since his emergement from college, and 
that he now sees and adopts views and theories not only con¬ 
trary to those once held, but in opposition to his professional 
brotherhood? “Then answered them (the officers, who said, 
never man spake like this man) the Pharisees, are ye also 
deceived ? have any of the rulers, or of the Pharisees, believed 
on him ? but this people who know not the law are cursed,” 


God and the World . 


541 


is as pertinent now as when first spoken. “ To the law and to 
testimony; if they speak not according to this word it is 
because there is no light in them.” “Prove all things and 
hold fast that which is good.” 

It would seem that the controversy on Mars Hill in Athens, 
the city of Socrates and Plato, between Paul and the heathen 
philosophers, would have forever established the materiality 
of the future state of Christianity, in opposition to the imma- 
terialism of heathen philosophy. 

This taught that the soul was naturally immortal, because 
it was immaterial; that at death it went into purgatory, 
where, by philosophy, it was purified, afterward received on 
high, in the society of the gods, where it received the reward 
of its good actions and lived in a state of joys and delights 
impossible to describe, to all eternity, without a body ; that 
the judgment was at each man’s death; that rewards and 
punishments were then awarded. 

But Paul taught a doctrine which bore no resemblance to 
this, which, in this encounter, these philosophers themselves 
acknowledged. It is recorded Acts xvii: “Now, while Paul 
waited at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw 
the whole city given to idolatry, therefore disputed he in the 
synagogues and in the market, with the Jews and the devout 
persons that met with him. Then certain philosophers of the 
Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him, and some said, 
what will this babbler say ? Others said, he seemeth to be a 
setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto them 
Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him to Areop¬ 
agus, saying, may we know what this new doctrine is whereof 
thou speaketh? for thou bringest certain strange things to 
our ears; we would know, therefore, what these things 
mean.” 

Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and began his dis¬ 
course, first by charging that the Athenians were too super¬ 
stitious, ignorantly worshiping an unknown god; “ whom 
ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.” Then, after 
referring specifically to the relations this God sustained to 


542 


The Philosophy of 


them all, including himself, he preached again Jesus and the 
resurrection unto them, and when he spake of the resurrec¬ 
tion some mocked and some believed, but the principal por¬ 
tion of them said, we will hear thee again of this matter. 

In opposition to their idea of the many judgments passing 
every day upon men, as they die, as Socrates and Plato had 
taught, and that they might be prepared for it, he told them 
to repent, because God hath appointed a day , in the which he 
will judge the world by that man whom he hath ordained, 
whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he 
hath raised him from the dead. 

This God, Jesus, with a material body, whom Paul preached 
unto them, was such a strange God, in comparison with their 
immaterial gods, and that in him dwelt all the fullness of the 
Godhead bodily, while their gods had no body at all, and that 
this was the God of creation. “All things were made by 
him ; ” that he was no inferior begotten Logos, like the begot¬ 
ten gods of Plato, but “ The Alpha and the Omega, the first 
and the last, and only God, who was dead, but alive again 
forevermore.” This was, indeed, a new God to them. That 
he was crucified, dead and buried ; that he rose again on the 
third day ; that the changes through which he passed in com¬ 
ing to life did not in the least affect the materiality of his 
nature, but instead of its being a natural body, it became a 
spiritual body, it was changed from corruption to incorrup¬ 
tion, from weakness to power, from mortality to immortality, 
from a body of dishonor, susceptible of death, to one of honor 
and glory, and was thus “ Christ’s glorious body,” but it was 
the same body that was crucified. Said he, “Thomas ! reach 
hither thy finger and put it in the prints of the nails, and 
thrust thy hand into my side ; ” handle me and see that it is 
I, myself, and not an immaterial spirit, which hath not flesh 
and bones, as ye see me have ; he did eat fish and honeycomb, 
which an immaterial spirit could not, to convince them still 
further that he was not a spirit, such as your heathen gods ; 
but on thus beholding Jesus, Thomas exclaimed “My Lord 
and my God!” Such is the God, the resurrected Jesus, 


God and the World. 


543 

Paul declared unto these Platonic philosophers. Not only so, 
but all the saints are to have just such bodies as this. “ They 
are to be fashioned like unto Christ’s glorious body,” and 
until it occurs there is no salvation. “ Receiving the end of 
your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” 

Your philosophic, immaterial heaven of bodiless spirits is 
only fancy, the result of your ignorance ; there is no salvation 
in that. “For there is no other name given among men 
whereby we must be saved ; ” Jesus and the resurrection com¬ 
prehends it all. Your ignorance up to this time, God winked 
at, but behold I bring you the light. “Life and immortality 
are brought to light by the gospel.” That of Socrates and 
Plato, you see, is nothing like that which I preach unto you, 
Jesus and the resurrection is the only hope of the future world, 
the only entrance therein, its order is “ Christ the first fruits, 
afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming,” and does not 
come at death as your philosophy teaches, this, therefore, is 
your only hope of salvation. 

Indeed, if Jesus is still dead there is no salvation at all, or 
if he does not raise the saints to life, then there is no salvation 
for them. The intermediate state, no matter in what it con¬ 
sists, is of so small account, “that they that have fallen 
asleep in Christ have perished.” If in this life only we have 
hope in Christ, or of dying and going to heaven for a little 
while without our bodies, even then we are of all men most 
miserable. 

There was reason in Socrates being willing to drink the 
hemlock which instantly ushered him into the spheres of the 
gods without his body, but I, says Paul, wish not to be 
unclothed or die, but clothed upon, that mortality might be 
swallowed up of life. If I did, what advantage was there to 
have induced me to have fought with the beasts at Ephesus in 
order to preserve my life % I had better died if that had been 
the end of me, and if there is no resurrection of the dead, such 
indeed had it been. Therefore, “Let us eat and drink and 
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, for to-morrow we die 
there is nothing in your philosophy which can give life beyond. 


544 


The Philosophy of 


Jesus is dead and ye are yet in your sins; Jesus is dead 
and we have preached a lie ; Jesus is dead and the saints are 
perished. No fires of purgatory or philosophy can purge 
and fit them for any sphere among the gods, or for any exist¬ 
ence. “He was raised for our justification,” but if he is still 
dead we are still guilty and so must remain ; and, therefore, 
your heaven is a fable. But I preach to you Jesus and the 
resurrection; He is the only God of salvation. Therefore, 
“Feel after him, if happily ye may find him. I seek for 
glory, honor, immortality, eternal life.” I wait, that mortality 
might be swallowed up of life, when this vile body shall be 
fashioned like unto Christ’s glorious body. 

Neither did the body of Jesus, our God, pass through any 
other change after his resurrection. Do you ask me what 
that body was that went up from the Mount of Olives ? I will 
tell you. “It was the same body that first descended into the 
lower parts of the earth (grave). It is the same that ascended, 
that also first descended. Do you ask whether it was the same 
material body that ascended which shall always so remain 1 
Hark! “Then two angels in white apparel appeared, and 
said, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven, 
this same Jesus shall so come again in like manner as ye have 
seen him go into heaven. Yes, every eye shall see him, and 
they also that pierced Him, and all the kindreds of the earth 
shall wail because of Him, beholding the same scars their sins 
inflicted. 

With what different exclamation 
Shall the saints his banner see. 

By the tokens of his passion, 

By the marks received for me. 

All discern him; 

All with shouts, cry out,—’tis he! 

The fact is, we have reached a period whose intellectual and 
moral demand is a clear definition of scientific and philosophic 
principles, no less than those of religion, one that goes to the 
very foundation in its investigations. So far has this position 
developed itself, that creeds and the opinions of the past pre- 


God and the World. 


545 


sent no barriers to obstruct its onward march. The independ¬ 
ence of thought has asserted its manly right so formidably 
that no system, theory or dogma emanating from whatever 
source, even though purporting to be of divine origin, is 
received, unless it will bear the test of philosophical scrutiny. 

By this standard the nations of the old world have tried 
the claim of the Roman pontiff — that, of right, he is the only 
civil ruler of all nations and kingdoms on earth — and, with¬ 
out exception, have cast it aside as a worthless assumption, 
and also that of the Pope’s infallibility, and to-day the intelli¬ 
gence of the world treats it simply with derision. More spe¬ 
cifically, it has tested some of the more prominent dogmas of 
papacy, and simply scorns their pretense. For instance, that 
the priests have power to make a god, of real divinity, out of 
a wafer, and then masticate and swallow him. And also that, 
by their prayers, the priest has power to confine souls indefi-. 
nitely in purgatory, or release them at pleasure. It was by 
ignorantly confounding these nonsensical dogmas of Roman¬ 
ism with Christianity that drove France into her infidelity. 
The fact is, the great apostle of the Gentiles long since charac¬ 
terized correctly these doctrines of heathenism, as “ Philoso¬ 
phy falsely so called 

Just let it be understood that the great doctrines of revela¬ 
tion fundamentally rest on as philosophical a basis as those of 
astronomy, and that man can no more avoid the conviction 
of its truths than he can the results of the revolutions of the 
heavenly bodies ; indeed, it is in the very constitution of mind 
without an effort to feel the force of what it conceives to be 
truth ; but heathen philosophy, we mean that relating to a 
future state, alfords nothing which comes within the grasp of 
man’s reasoning faculties, and therefore only lingers within the 
realm of the superstitious; assuming “ ignorance to be the 
mother of devotion,” it has no questions of enlightenment 
to propound. 

Akin to this Papal superstition is that we hear sometimes 
expressed in the Protestant church, that it is not necessary to 
know all the bible teaches, and that all that is really essential 
69 


The Philosophy of 


546 

is, that Christ died to save sinners, and if we will repent he 
will save us. Now, we think that on sentiment, skeptical or 
otherwise, has been so productive of biblical ignorance as 
this. The bible purports to be a revelation from God to men, 
containing such declarations as these: “ Whatsoever things 
were written aforetime were written for our learning/’ “ All 
scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for 
instruction in righteousness.” “ And be ready always to 
give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the 
hope that is in you.” These passages need no comment in 
order to expose the folly and wickedness of the above plea for 
ignorance. The whole bible is written for the high and noble 
purpose of the inculcation of an intellectual Christianity. 
Indeed, there is only one thing it contains which cannot be 
understood, that which the seven thunders uttered, which 
were intelligent ideas, for John was about to write them, just 
as the inhibition came, “ Seal up those things which the seven 
thunders uttered and write them not,” and we see that they 
were not written ; had they been, they would have been for our 
learning, and, of course, must have been susceptible of being 
understood. “Although Secret things belong unto the Lord, 
yet those things which are revealed belong unto us and our 
children forever.” 

The doctrine of the materiality of the future abode of the 
saints, as well as of themselves, is no less that of revelation 
than that it consists most perfectly with their spirituality, 
incorruptibility and immortality, as defined in that revelation. 
The heathen notion of its despicability and grossness is for¬ 
ever repudiated by the great transaction of God investing 
himself with such a body. While Plato teaches the inherent 
viciousness of matter, we hear the voice of inspiration inter¬ 
preting this incarnation, exclaiming, “A body hast thou 
prepared for me,” and that body was simply one of matter, 
and is now a glorious body in heaven. Whose estimation of 
the nature of matter is to be preferred, God’s or Plato’s ? 

We may also say that all the philosophic wisdom of the 
world no more throws a ray of light on the great theme of 


God and the World . 


547 


“God manifest in the flesh,” than that it shows the transac¬ 
tion to be inconsistent with such knowledge. In other words, 
the revealed truth is as philosophical as that of the existence 
of God, man and the world; we are, therefore, shut up ex¬ 
clusively to the information derived from the two sources of 
revelation, that of the written word, according to whose pre¬ 
dictions Christ became incarnate, with the history of that 
incarnation ; and the other, that of the personal revelation of 
this material embodiment of the whole Godhead, and which 
is in the most perfect harmony with the philosophic voice of 
the world ; any apparent discrepancies find their ample source 
in the unintelligent misconceptions and definitions of men. 

Perhaps no truth of revelation has been such a fruitful 
source of error as that of the incarnation, and the prolific 
fountain of this has been in the attempt by Origen, of the 
Platonic school, to explain the deity of Christ by the rules of 
that philosophy, that the Logos of Plato’s inferior deity was 
the preexisting Christ, separate and distinct from the eternal 
God, the error of which we have already shown. Here origi¬ 
nated the questions and discriminations relating to the infe¬ 
riority and superiority of the persons in the trinity, and which 
continue to the present day, none of which would ever have 
existed had men been content to have been wise up to that 
which is written in the scriptures of truth, and as content 
not to be wise above it. 
































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